A Life In This World
by TheBlackbirdCalls
Summary: You live a quiet life on the outskirts of town, satisfied to spend your time tapping away at a computer or the occasional good book. Things change when your garage explodes. Commission for adammbrady
1. Chapter 1

Tap tap tap. You hear that sound a lot. Like, a whole lot. TV and movies really glams up reality, but the world is boring. Jobs are either hard work or excessive typing. As a programmer, you've of the excessive typing camp. You much prefer it that way, to be honest; you aren't much for personability, so you much prefer quietly typing away at a keyboard in the comfort of your own home rather than getting yelled at by some rich broad that never worked a day in her life in some clothing store.

Most days, you keep to yourself, programming and typing away in a house that's too big for you. Though it's not the worst problem in the world, a decent salary and a family that supports you means you live in a well-sized two story house. Location wise, it kind of sucks, which attributed to the lower price. It's not close to much of anything, but it's not like you'd go to too many places to begin with. You prefer the quiet suburbia life on the outskirts of the outskirts of a big city to the noise of said big city. Heck, even your house is somewhat isolated; you're around a corner in a court, so you're way out of the way of even the other houses. You exit your house from the back door, as your garage is a separate building facing behind the main street, so you don't even need to interact with anyone on the sidewalk should you leave your house.

Man, all that makes it sound sadder than it is. You just aren't very personable.

Though some may say it's lonely, you prefer it this way. All you need is a good internet connection and a large collection of books, a good deal of which came with the house. Socialization was better left for the online world, and time was better spent getting lost in some new fantasy on a cozy hammock you have on your balcony. Your parents might have preferred you be a bit more active around people, but you feel you're still a ways away from justifying owning a home built for a family. You were never terribly close with your parents, but you love them and they love you enough to support your lonesome lifestyle.

Which brings you to now. You're finished with work, household chores are taken care of, and you have nothing going on. For once, you're a bit bored of reading, and you don't particularly feel like watching anything or playing a game. Maybe today was best spent napping. Though… you guess you're pretty low on food; a shopping trip might not be bad, just for something to do. Standing up and stretching, you change out of your pajamas (a benefit of working from home!) and set about getting dressed. Though it isn't totally necessary, you might as well put something decent on; there's the whole, "you never know when you're going to meet the one," thing, and you'd prefer not to meet The One wearing fuzzy bottoms.

Setting out with a nice collared shirt and some headphones, you enjoy a quiet drive listening to a podcast. You decide to kill time and pass by the corner store in favor of a slightly more impressive grocery store. It was quite a bit further, but you have nothing to do today, so might as well. The drive was relaxing, the scenery was nice, and you really need to catch up on your podcast backlog. One of the benefits of working from home was being able to enjoy long drives, otherwise you'd dread every second wasted not in your house.

Your time passes and you drive home with a few full bags of food. Laziness takes you, so you park in front on your house instead of behind it in your garage, mostly because it meant you'll have slightly less walking to do. In short order, you have a full fridge and and desire to lay down and read. Grabbing one of the drinks you just purchased and selecting a book from your shelf, you sprawl out on the couch and settle in. Days like this are common and comfortable. You live a quiet life, which you have no problems with.

Just as you lay back onto your couch, book at the ready, you feel… something. You aren't sure what, but something feels off; there's a weird pressure or something in the air, along with a weird buzzing that just started. Failing to ignore it, you see if you can find the source, as there's a clear direction it's coming from. You cross the living room, through the kitchen, and look outside. There's your tiny backyard, and the humming seemed to be coming from…. maybe your garage.

You feel the world disappear as you're blinded by a blistering light and deafened by a massive roar. Force kicks you back a good three feet, though you can't tell on account of the vertigo. The only reason you know you aren't dead is that you recognize this feeling from movies, the ones where soldiers survive a grenade and the music cuts to a hum. Lights fade and flicker as you stumble around, trying to regain feeling. Eventually, you manage to climb to your feet and stated, shaking the lights from your eyes.

Attempting to figure out what just happened, you stumble to your back door, amazed it still stands. Heck, your window is fine despite the blast. As your sight charges back up to 100% you see that, for some reason, nothing looks terribly different; your backyard shows no signs of ruin sans the long grass you've failed to mow. Though… the door to your garage is open. Like, blow open.

As your ears readjust, you hear indistinct voices and shouts. Your body is just about back to normal, so you walk through the blown open door and fail to understand what happened. Like, you know that your vision is correct, you can clearly see that your fingers move the way you tell them to move, but what you see can't be right.

Your garage was formerly all but empty. Aside from some miscellaneous power tools and random storage, there was a big empty space usually reserved for your car. However, instead, there was a large… thing. Like, a machine of some kind, but one more suited to a science fiction story than anything you're used to. Scorch marks and bits of metal line the ground surrounding the base of it, as if it had erupted in an explosion; the metal chassis did appear to be somewhat broken, but there was plenty more to be concerned with.

Stepping carefully around the machine now occupying your garage, you look out your garage door. Thankfully, you must have forgot to close it, seeing as it was open, but as you look out to the fields making up the view behind your house, you see the cause of the voices.

Along with several masked figures running off into the distance, you see four distinctly colored people facing the fields.

A girl in a red hood.

A girl in a white dress.

A girl with long black hair.

A girl with wild, untamed yellow hair.

The four girls looked across the field, staring daggers at the people running. It took a long while before the scene really seemed to progress, as they stood there, exhausted and panting as the world turned around them. Eventually, the blonde one began looking around, clearly lost. She looks behind her, towards you, towards the machine. Confusion spreads across her beautiful features as she looks around her. The other girls follow suit, scanning the landscapes and eventually shifting their confusion to you.

This..

Weird doesn't begin to describe the events you see unfolding.

As the woman with black hair accepts her surroundings, she steps closer to you, showing that she means no harm. Holding her hands up with caution, she grows closer and closer.

Now, you could continue to wonder about what was going on, or you could accept it. You can accept that the girl in the red hood was wearing a fantasy style corset. You can accept that the white haired girl had pure white, not dyed, but natural hair in a long ponytail. You can accept that the girl in black had bright yellow eyes. You can accept that the blonde one had a black and gold arm.

Before the woman with black hair has a chance to speak, you interrupt her.

"B… Blake?" you ask, staring at someone you recognize, but someone that shouldn't– COULDN'T- exist. Before you was Blake Belladonna, and behind her was the rest of Team RWBY.

Blake stops in her tracks, as does the rest of her team. The four of them look at you, each with their own brand of confusion. "W…What? You… know me?"

Seeing as you don't have too many options, you raise your hands to ease their minds and say, "You're… Team RWBY. From the sh…" you take a moment to think. "From Beacon Academy."

"Well, I guess we are a little famous…" Yang says, billowing her hair.

"We're not famous, Yang," Weiss says, holding up her rapier, but struggling. "The last time we were seen in any sort of public manner, you supposedly shot an innocent student in the legs. That was two years ago; he shouldn't recognize us on sight, nor should he look so positive about us if he did."

Understanding what Weiss was saying, Yang puts up her dukes and cocks her lone Ember Celica, readying the gun in her mechanical arm. Blake gets into a more active stance, but doesn't draw. Ruby rushes over to Crescent Rose, lying on the ground; she readies to swing it and pose, but fails to move it off the ground.

"Ruby?" Weiss asks, seeing Ruby struggle to lift her weapon. "What's wrong."

"I…" Ruby pants. "I can't– UMP– lift her!"

Yang takes a step forward and calls, "Some sort of gravity Semblance!?"

You step back, holding your hands up higher. You'd rather not get shot, especially by a massive shotgun capable of lifting Yang with the output.

Ruby immediately shouts, "No! Something's wrong!" Giving up, she stands and addresses her team. "I don't… I don't feel right."

Weiss' arm lowers as she loses the strength to lift Myrtenaster. "I think Ruby is right. Explain yourself. What's going on? Where are we?"

You lower your arms, slowly so as not to invoke a reaction. "I'm Mark. My garage blew up and now you guys are here." You point behind you to where the machine was taking up space in your garage. "You're… on the outskirts of the city…?" you say, recalling that they shouldn't know where you live.

RWBY looks around again. They take note of the rural farming land making up your surroundings.

"Where are we?" Ruby asks. "We're not at the base anymore."

Blake looks past you at the machine. "The rumors did say the White Fang were working on a transporter device. Not that I believed they would get it to work…"

"Not even the SDC has figured out teleportation, and my father has spent the money to develop leads. To think they've found something…"

"Not important!" Ruby says. "He doesn't want to harm us, and he doesn't look like he knows what's going on." She approaches you, her soft features and rosy cheeks letting you know she's peaceful. "You already know us, but we're Team RWBY. I think we should talk." 


	2. Chapter 2

"So, we were heading to Atlas on an airbus…"

"Then we got a distress signal from a remote town halfway there. We stopped to investigate, got wrapped up with the White Fang, skip forward a bit and we raid what I guess was a base that was building a teleportation device." Blake lies back down on the couch. "So…we're not en route to Atlas?"

"Nope."

"And we're not even on Remnant?"

"You… are not."

"So… where are we?"

You sit back in your own chair. This was unreal. You had Team RWBY in your house. You had FICTIONAL CHARACTERS in your house. This was weird.

"Our planet is earth, and we're in the country of America. As for city…" You pause. It wasn't enough that RWBY was real, but the coincidences were crazy. "We're just outside of Austin, Texas." You don't think any of the girls grasp that you know them, despite not living in Remnant. The next part of the conversation is going to be weird. They don't know why that city in particular is important.

"So… wow. So, like, an alternate world?" Yang asks. So it's true; she does seem the type to play games were that's a common enough plot thread. "And we're somehow stuck in it?"

"Hold on," Blake asks. "You managed to recognize us even if this is an alternate world?"

"Yes."

"How? Do we have alternate versions in this universe that you've seen? Brothers Grimm, that sounds like a bad comic…"

"Uhh…" you stutter, looking at your computer.

Yang's eyes narrow. "Uhh what?"

"You guys… are a show."

Yang blinks. "What?"

"You're an online series called RWBY. I've…" you try to think of the least creepy way to say, "I've watched it. It's a few seasons."

"You've been WATCHING us?" Weiss says, putting her hands between her skirt. "You pervert!"

"It's not like that! It's a web series about you guys in Remnant. And the last episode was you all heading to Atlas after escaping Cordovin and…" you pause and look at Blake and Yang. "Adam."

Yang slams a fist into your counter. "You WATCH US? For ENTERTAINMENT!?" She holds up the same fist, reminding you that it was made of metal. "I lost an ARM! Blake got STABBED!"

"Calm down, Yang," Ruby says. She thinks for a long while. "It's… it happened."

The other girls look over at Ruby, as do you. "What did? Yang asks, breathing heavily.

"We did it. We became heroes, just like in the stories." Ruby can't help but shine a smile. "We're just like the heroes in the fairy tales. Literally."

Weiss, Blake, and Yang all share a confused look. It's a mix of confusion, anger, discomfort, but also a tangible pride and pleasure. Though in a somewhat voyeuristic way, their lives were validated by being fiction.

"And you said it's called RWBY? Just our team name?"

"Yes."

Ruby's eyes close and a big smile decorates her face. "That means we win in the end, doesn't it? We're the heroes; heroes never lose in the fairy tales!"

"I don't think it's that simple, Ruby," Blake says. "Not every fairy tale has a happy ending."

"But most anime shows do!" Ruby counters. She blinks, then looks at you. "Uh… actually… What KIND of show are we?"

"The kind where the other ones like are the ones where the heroes win and the bad guys lose."

"See!?"

"Well, we can't take that as fact, but…" Blake considers. "That… that does bring up a good point. Time will tell if our story really does have a happy ending."

"Though, that also means getting home…" Weiss brings up.

"Yeah, that's an issue…" Ruby says. "Though… Maybe we should–" Ruby pauses. Without a word she jumps up and runs outside.

You and WBY look at each other awkwardly. Yang is the first to recover, walking outside after her sister. You all see Ruby whining as she tries to lift Crescent Rose off of the ground; while in the show (wow, that's a weird metric comparison…) she can deftly swing it around, now, she can barely lift it off your driveway.

"Waahahahaaaaa…" Ruby cries, her pouty face reminding you of her less serious side. "It's so heavyyyyy." She fails to lift it more than a few inches.

Weiss puts a hand on her sheathed Myrtenaster. "I did notice my sword has been heavier since we got here. A first, I though it was a Semblance attack, but… I think something is different about Aura."

"About that…" you say, wondering just how much you have to go over. "Aura… isn't a thing here. Nobody survives a well placed bullet like you guys do. We get injured, that's it until we're healed naturally."

"Well, that explains it," Weiss nods. "Though, that presents a large number of issues. Hold on…" Weiss takes a breath, then pinches her arm. You see her skin flicker with an ethereal shield.

"Okay that's weird…" you point out. "We don't have Aura PERIOD."

"It seems we still have ours," Weiss theorizes, "but it appears it's weaker."

"That'd explain why you can't lift Crescent Rose, Ruby." Yang looks almost as upset as her sister. Crescent Rose was like Ruby's baby, after all.

"Waaaaaaaa."

"We can't leave it there's though. It's a gun."

"Let me try," Yang says. She doesn't seem bothered by her gauntlets and she is incredibly strong without Aura, so... How much of that is Aura control and how much is okay she's lifting it like it was an unwieldy shovel but god that looks heavy. Hefting Crescent Rose over her shoulder, Yang hauls it over to the garage, where she props it up near the strange machine. She also grabs Bumblebee, which you guess she recovered at some point as it was nearby, and places the bike in the garage. "There we… go…" Yang says, her self flattery interrupted by a question. "Hey, wait a sec…"

"What?" Ruby says, wiping her eyes.

Yang raps her hands on the metal side of the machine. "I'm gonna take a guess and say that this thing is what got us here. Now, I'm also gonna guess it can take us back."

"It looks pretty beat up."

"And the only people that know how it was built want to kill us." Blake looks off to where you figure the White Fang members involved with this machine ran off. "Great."

"It's possible we can fix it. If a few splintered White Fang managed to put it together, then we should be able to, right?"

"Yang, I don't think we know anywhere NEAR enough about this sort of technology to fix a teleported. We didn't even know teleporters were a real THING."

Yang awkwardly rolls her eyes. "I mean… my mom is technically a teleporter, so…"

"That's a Semblance! That's totally different."

"We should still be able to figure it out! It looks pretty much complete; we probably just need to touch it up a bit."

"We can't really do much right now," Ruby says. "I'm gonna need to study the heck out of this but the sun is going down, plus I'm exhausted. Our adventure starts tomorrow."

"There's also the White Fang members. Did any of you see how many there were?"

"Actually," you say, raising a hand. "I should mention…" This was yet another bomb to drop. "We… don't have Faunus here," you say, realizing the irony as you look directly at Blake's ears. "Everyone on earth is a human."

Blake blinks. Her ears twitch. A strange sense of loneliness stretches across her face. "You… don't have… Faunus?"

"No. Which makes me think about what people are going to think when there are terrorists running around with animal features. Though, we don't have Grimm, either."

"No Grimm!?"

"No Grimm, no Dust, no Aura, no transforming weapons. Basically any of the stuff associated with huntsman. No matter where you go, there's probably not going to be anything that can kill you four outright."

"Either way, we need to find the White Fang members before they do anything crazy. Who knows what they'll do if they find out that they aren't in Remnant?" Weiss asks.

"We can search tomorrow. We're as lost as they are, so there's no chance of finding them, and even if we did, it'd be a gunfight. Best to lay low until we can figure a few things out." Blake says.

"But what if they hurt someone?" Weiss responds.

"Unlikely. Like I said, they're lost and confused. They'll find a place to regroup, then hide until they figure things out. Once they realize that they're isolated, they won't be making any big moves. Mark, tomorrow, we can go over places they might use as a base."

"Methodical…" Weiss stumbles.

"I was with them, after all. Without leadership, numbers, Aura, or supplies, they're… well, they're wolves without fangs. We have the advantage and the machine."

You think for a moment. Teleporting was one thing. Terrorists suddenly showing up in Nowhere, Texas was another. Teleporting terrorists that had a magic shield over them, elemental crystals, futuristic weaponry, and animal traits were a whole mess of issues. Also, Blake.

"Still, I don't know how long you guys are going to be here, but Blake, it might not be a good idea to go out in public. In fact, we should head inside again. We're lucky no one is investigating this area right now."

Blake looks up at her ears, then to the other houses nearby. Thankfully, no one seems to be concerned with the explosion that took place. Once you close the garage door, everything seems completely normal; none would ever guess that an otherworldly explosion took place on your strip of road. The five of you head back inside, any evidence of anything odd hidden away.

"So, we're stuck here with no options other than to try to fix a machine we barely know about, in a world where Aura and Faunus don't exist, and the only other people that know about us are extremists?" Blake says, collapsing on the couch again.

"Yup." Yang returns to leaning on the counter.

"Great. I don't even know where to begin."

Ruby perks up. Showing her team leader capabilities, she says, "Well, we should make a list! What we need to do is… fix the machine, stop the White Fang, stay quiet about where we came from…"

"Hope the world doesn't end while we're gone."

"Pray that we get back to JNPR, Oscar, Qrow, and Maria without having to go through ANOTHER continent spanning hide and seek."

"Find out how we're going to survive in a world with pocket change, no identification, inappropriately themed clothing, and technologically advanced weaponry."

Ruby's face twists to match her annoyance. "You guys are real downers. He said there's no Grimm here; we should look at the bright side of things!"

"I can help with that last thing," you say before things devolve. When all of RWBY looks at you, you motion to the room and say, "I'm the only one that lives here. I got some spare rooms, and it's not like I'd let you guys run homeless. Plus, the machine is in my garage; I can't see any of you moving it."

Yang looks around your home. "You got this place all to yourself?"

"Parents wanted an investment. The place was pretty cheap because the area hasn't developed too much, so… I guess we're a bit isolated, which is good."

"You'd really let us stay here?"

"Unless you have a better idea."

Ruby jumps at you, but falls over, her Semblance failing. When you help her up, she awkwardly shakes herself off. Repeating herself without using her speed, she hugs you. "Thank you! I wouldn't know what to do if you weren't here!"

"I can't say no. It's the least I can do since I've watched your story unfold."

Weiss stamps her heel down, angrily. "I do thank you for your hospitality, but don't think for a second that I forgive you for spying on us."

"Chill, Weiss, how was he supposed to know we're real? If we're a show, then it makes sense." Upon explanation and contemplation, Yang has thankfully mellowed out her viewpoint.

Feeling you need to win Weiss' trust, you awkwardly say, "I should mention that I only have two extra rooms with one bed each. Weiss, I feel like you're gonna want one to yourself."

"The least you can do," Weiss states, sternly.

"I'll take the couch," Blake says, already sprawled out on it. She looked tired and defeated, but somewhat content with how things turned out. Considering she went from being forced to kill her ex to fighting an invasion to fighting more White Fang… The good thing about world swapping is that yours was considerably safer than Remnant; a few weakened White Fang members must sound like a vacation to her. "This is a nice couch. I like this couch." She sits up. "I'm used to poor bed options, so this is honestly heavenly."

"I guess that leaves me and you, Ruby," Yang says, clearly annoyed. "We don't really have much of a choice, but I guess we're gonna have to share a bed and a room, unless you got another idea."

"I suppose I can forfeit my room. I got a queen size in there, so it'd actually fit two people. I'd have to move my work setup and a bunch of other things, but the other room would NOT fit two."

"If you're willing to."

"It's for the best. I can't cram you two into one tiny bed, and I don't need the extra space."

"So, at least that's settled," Ruby says. "Tomorrow, we can look at the machine and see what we're dealing with. From there, we can figure out a plan."

"If that's settled, then I need a bath," Weiss says. "We've been in nonstop battles for weeks; I'm going to take FULL advantage of a world without Grimm."

You stand to show Weiss, Yang, and Ruby their rooms for the night (and possibly longer). Realizing an issue with Weiss' plan, you bring up, "If you guys are going to stay here, I don't have too much food, or any clothes aside from my own. Depending on what tomorrow brings, we might need to figure stuff out."

Weiss looks down at her dress, which was filthy. Everyone else's clothes were covered in soot, dirt, and battle. You could only offer your own spare clothes; at the very least, your shirts would suffice for a night. "I suppose I have no choice…" Weiss says, embarrassed and annoyed at her situation. "Bring me a shirt and something else I can wear. Please," she adds, realizing she's being rude.

"Hold on. I'll grab… something." You start walking up your stairs to fish for any clothes that would sufficiently cover your new roommates.

"I'll shower in a sec, too. If you wouldn't mind grabbing me something?" Yang asks.

As you reach upstairs, you hear, "Actually, Yang… Before you do, could you do something for me?" from Blake. You don't hear the actual request, however. Oh, well. More important things to focus on.

You have quite a road ahead of you. 


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh…" you say, looking at a new Blake walk in your back door.

Blake fiddles with her hair, now cut into a short bob. The weight of the years she spent growing it under Adam's shadow now removed, she nervously looked at you and Ruby and asked, "Well… what do you think?"

"Oh, my gosh! You look so cute!" Ruby yells. It was true; you've always loved Blake's desig- er, look (or whatever term applies…), but her with short hair was a welcome change. She looked… cuter; she's always been attractive (though is that because she is/was animated? God, this is confusing…), but the bob just felt more open than her mysterious longer hair. Blake looked far less serious, at least. Annoyingly, you consider how it represents her character development of moving past Adam; that's you thinking of Blake as a character, not a person, though.

One day you'll figure out how all this meta-reality phrasing works…

"I think it looks perfect," you say.

"Damn right it does," Yang says, holding up the scissors she used to clean up Blake's hair. "I've been doing this for like, fifteen years. If I can't give a haircut, who can?"

Blake looks at the ground, blushing. "Thanks. It's… a new look, for sure. Thought I was due for a change."

"It suits you well."

"Of course, now I'm covered in hair…" Blake scratches her neck. "You said you have some spare clothes? Weiss will be in that bath for days, but I could do with a quick shower."

"You can go first, Blake. It's hot as dicks here, but at least leather washes easily enough." Yang removes her motorcycle-esque jacket, same with her neck pillow. She also ditches her coattails and belt; now in an orange tank and black pants, she looked the most normally dressed compared to the gothic Ruby and stylized crop top Blake had on. Well, except for the robot arm.

As Yang begins sink washing the major stains from her clothes, you point out, "Uhh… once again, we don't have any prosthetics that… good. If you wanna lay low, you're gonna need to keep that on the down-low."

Yang holds up her robot arm, looks annoyed, and shrugs. "That's a pain. I guess I can get gloves? Or maybe a wrap? I dunno."

"And Blake, you might want a hat. Or the bow again."

"Hat. I'm done with ribbons."

"Hat it is.

"Not that we have too much reason to leave here…"

Ruby perks up, having been fiddling on her scroll. "I dunno. Depending on that machine goes, we might have to stick around for a bit. I have no idea how long it's gonna take."

"We at least need a new set of clothes," Blake says, looking down at her outfit. "Man, I'm lucky my jacket was the only thing that got cut up."

You now consider how… interesting the Blake and Yang vs Adam fight would have been had Blake been topless. Her figure translated well before you, reminding you of the more… illicit fan art she had. Yang and Ruby were also both beautiful and shapely, almost in an uncanny way; the lot of them were gorgeous in ways you rarely saw prior to now. You also now consider what would a girl look like if another series with less properly proportioned character designs showed up in your backyard; lord knows there's plenty of series where the smallest chest size was an E, not even counting hentai. N-not that you watch that…

You shake your head and refocus. "Clothes, right!" You found a nice dress shirt for Weiss; it fit her standards of dress and would be long enough to serve as a skirt. Though you try not to think about it out of shame, Weiss, and Ruby once she undressed would be without any bras or panties. Yang and Blake wouldn't either, but at least your spare clothes would allow them pants; Ruby and Weiss' hips were simply too small, but Yang and Blake could wear your sweatpants without much worry while their teammates had nothing but shirts. Shopping would have to be the main priority after Ruby inspects the machine.

You fish around and find a nice set of clothes for Blake. She'll have to make do with just a large Henley and some slightly-too-big sweats, but she'll be dressed and comfortable. And… cute. Women wearing oversized tops is an amazing look; you also can't deny the thought of Weiss and Ruby in nothing but a large shirt excites you.

You hand Blake her clothes and sit with Ruby and Yang downstairs. Yang was still grinding the major dirt and stains out of her leather gear while Ruby was exploring your living room. She eventually settles on the tv and starts flipping through channels.

"So this is weird, right?" Yang asks.

"Yes," you agree. "Very."

"You… know me. Know us. You… we didn't exist to you?"

"You're… You're characters in a show." Hoping it'd help, you add, "And games."

Yang perks up. "Wait, games? Like, we're in video games!? What kind?"

"Yup. You're the stars of a horde fighter, and you've crossed over into some other games. Some mobile stuff, a board game, and a fighting game."

"I'm in a fighting game!?" Yang lights up like a spotlight. "Sick! Show me show me show me!"

Surprised that Yang took being in a fighting game a lot better than being a character in a show, you pull up some footage of the fighting game Yang was in. You hold your phone out and let her watch while she washes her clothes.

You see the lights leave Yang's face as she looks at the video of her. "Oh…" she whispers, losing interest.

"What? What's wrong?"

Yang looks at her robot arm. You look at your screen and remember that most things Yang was in showed her when before Adam removed her arm. Seeing her own smiling face without her tragic mutilation probably struck a deep chord.

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault." Yang looks off and thinks for a moment. "Wait… actually, when does the show start?"

"Hmm?"

"That game was me when I first went to Beacon, right? Games always show characters in their most recognizable outfits and looks, so does that mean you started following us right after we started?"

"Close. The first episode is Ruby stopping Torchwick and then getting accepted." You think back to when RWBY first aired and how interesting it was as a project. It was the work of pretty much… a single man. You delay telling Yang about one tragic aspect of her series and instead say, "But there were four trailers. One for each of you. The first thing we saw of the series was the Red trailer, and that was Ruby killing a bunch of Beowolves in the snow. My online buddy Zachary showed me and it kinda kicked off from there."

"You saw that!?" Ruby shouts from across the room. She'd settled on cartoons, but her interest wavered when she heard what you said. She tries to zip over to you at the counter, but forgets that her Semblance doesn't really work. After a stumble, she pouts and walks downtrodden towards you. Yang chuckles.

"Yes. It was all about your gun scythe." Remembering some trivia, you say, "The Beowolves were all black and didn't have any masks, and you were wearing a slightly different outfit."

Ruby looks down at her clothes. "Oh, yeah… Well, the Beowolves looked normal when I was there, but I was trying out a new sewing thing that didn't work out. My cape was all weird, so I just decided to pin it after that."

Turning to Yang, you ask, "Did you ever wear a really long orange scarf with a cyan gradient?"

"Once," Yang answers, wondering where you were going with that. "It got in the way of my hair when I was fighting. Why?"

"Your concept art had one. And a polka dot bandana on your boot."

"We have CONCEPT ART!?"

"Yeah. A lot of it."

"That's weird but also cool!" Yang steps back from the sink and shadowboxes. "I've always wanted to be in a game, so I've thought about what my alternate costumes would be. I guess I sorta got my wish…"

Getting back on topic, you steer back with, "Your trailer was when you went to Junior's and fought those twins."

Yang's eyes widen and she looks at the ground. "Brothers Grimm, this is weird. You know… you know so much about us and we've never even met. Heck, we don't even exist? I think? Existential crisis here."

"Good call on giving Weiss her own room. She doesn't seem happy that you've watched us, but brownie points are brownie points." Ruby looks at her stomach. "wait actually do you have any food i havent eaten in a while" She looks at your fridge.

You try to remember what you bought at the grocery store earlier today. It was only a few hours ago, but it felt like a lifetime thanks to the recent developments. You stand and open the fridge. "Uhh… cheese, eggs, bread, microwaveables, and some veggies," you say, feeling a bit self-conscious about your choice in food. "Not enough for four extra people…"

Yang sets her clothes aside and takes a seat at the counter. "Well, I'm starving, and neither Blake nor Weiss have eaten anything since we left Jaune's sister's place." Taking a moment to run some water through her hair, she comes up with the perfect solution: "You guys got pizza here?"

"We do. I can order a couple of you don't mind waiting."

Ruby looks up with a full mouth, having discovered your cookie jar. She swallows and says, "Pizza is good. Weiss would want a salad and Blake wants anchovies. I like plain cheese!"

"I'll take peppers and onions if you're buying." Yang pats her back pocket. "We… we don't have any money, do we?"

"Nope," you say, scrolling through your cheapest pizza place's website. "Don't worry, I got some points saved up for a few free ones."

"We're already asking too much," Yang says, looking genuinely sorry. "Can you afford to do all this?"

You shrug. "I mean… not long term. I'm in a pretty good situation financially, but I can't afford to feed five well enough for more than like a week or two without having to budget."

Yang hangs her head. "Well, hopefully, this doesn't take too long. We can… wait, what can we do around here?" She looks towards your garage. "I don't suppose you have a bike that needs fixing or something? Cuz I can do that."

"You don't need to worry about that, at least right now. At least wait until tomorrow when we know what the heck we're doing."

"Sounds… alright, I guess. Just, thanks so much for this.

"It's the least I can do for you guys. I know you've had it rough." You suddenly remember just how true that is. For RWBY, the past few weeks included learning everything they're doing might be for nothing, the Apathy, a Grimm invasion, and Yang and Blake were probably still dealing with the fact that they were forced to kill Adam. Yes, he was a horrific abuser, but killing a man in such a brutal way wasn't something easy to forget.

"Ain't that the truth." Yang holds her iron hand.

"On a lighter note…" Ruby interjects. "Pizza!"

"Pizza," you agree. You continue on ordering several pizzas and some soda, plus a salad for Weiss.

A few minutes later, you, Ruby, and Yang are joined by Blake. As she steps down the stairs, you're immediately stricken with how attractive she looks. All of RWBY were… perfect; it was weird to think, but they didn't have imperfections the same was other men and women do. Even better, Blake's cute face and new hair was dramatically improved by her wearing one of your shirts. Thanks to you being a bit bigger than her, your Henley was off one shoulder, fashionably exposing her collar and her sleeves being a bit too long. Combined with your sweats, Blake looks like… well, the place you were in makes it feel like she was your girlfriend staying over and wearing your clothes.

"We're getting pizza!" Ruby says, preventing Blake from speaking. After the shock, Blake opens her mouth before Ruby again interrupts. "I got you anchovies!"

Blake's features soften and she smiles. "Thanks Ruby. Now, I'm gonna run laundry cuz while I'm down for this look, I really want pants that fit."

"My load can wait," Yang says, reclining on the sofa. "I washed most of my leather, so it's just what I have now. Weiss is going to freak if she doesn't have her dress by the time she's out of the bath, though."

"Mind showing me how it works…" Blake says, trailing off.

"Mark," you say, reminding her of your name.

"Mark," Blake repeats with a cute embarrassed smile.

You help Blake start on laundry and try to figure out how to get everyone settled in for the night. 


	4. Chapter 4

You… are excited. As if having some of your favorite tv heroines come to life wasn't something, the fact that most of them were surrounding you with barely any clothes on is. Their unfortunate situation means that they all needed to wash their clothes, and they had nothing to spare. So, you enjoy a slice of pizza with Ruby wearing a large t-shirt and Yang's shorts, Weiss in nothing but a dress shirt she continually had to adjust, Blake in oversized pajamas, and Yang in a tight shirt and sweats. While most were at least okay with their situation, Weiss was beet red, as her petite body meant that you had nothing for her. She was completely exposed under her shirt-skirt, and her laundry would only provide her with panties. She angrily eats her salad, embarrassed beyond belief and constantly eying your laundry room.

As for the rest of you, you all enjoy the pizzas you ordered. The night couldn't illuminate anything about the warp machine, and RWBY probably didn't want to hunt the White Fang stragglers while none of them had pants that fit, if any at all. In between watching a mindless action movie, you continue to tell the girls what's different about your world.

"So… really, just no Grimm?" Ruby asks.

"Nope. The worst we have are like, bears." You shrug. "Though most people will probably go their whole lives without seeing one in person."

"I still can't believe that. No Grimm, no Aura, no Dust…" Yang throws her head back. "How do you live?"

"We use electricity. You guys do too, right?"

"Coupled with Dust, yes," Blake explains. "Though, we do still have Aura here. It's weakened, sure, but we still HAVE it." Blake pinches her arm, causing a wave of white to wash over her.

"Semblances don't seem to work right if Ruby is any indication." Yang giggles as Weiss struggles to make a tiny glyph. "Maybe cuz we don't have as much Aura as normal?" Yang finishes a crust. "Actually, you think we could awaken him?"

"Huh?" you, Blake, Ruby, and Weiss say in unison.

"Like, awaken his Aura. Maybe you guys do have it, just not like, noticeably. If we can still activate ours but it's weakened, then it exists, right?"

"I'm not following."

"Like, if you guys flat didn't have Aura in your world, then either we shouldn't have it at all, OR, we should still have our normal abilities. The fact that it's weakened means there's like, a formula or something. Something affected it, which means there's a law of nature that governs it, right? Am I making sense? You're looking at me like I'm not making sense."

Weiss narrows her eyes. "No, I do see some sense in that. Things are different, but aside from Grimm, Aura, and Dust, our worlds are almost the same. If it's true and Aura didn't exist, then we should be able to use it normally. At least, that's a clear path to an explanation."

"Wow," you say. "Didn't expect a physics lesson from Yang. Not that I expected anything like… you know what I mean."

"What? You think just cuz I'm blonde that means I'm dumb?" Yang sounds angry, but her face makes it clear she's teasing you.

Your eyes widen. You aren't about to admit it, but kind of. Yang isn't usually depicted as being the smart one, at least in the fans' eyes. In the series, she doesn't *show* much intelligence, but she isn't as stupid as people think she is.

"Uhh… Let's say people get the wrong impression of you."

"And that means?"

"Oh, my gods, you've been mischaracterized," Blake scoffs, chuckling to herself. "Of course! We're characters, after all. What's a piece of fiction without people blatantly ignoring facts to suit whatever suits their tastes?" She looks at the screen.

"Uhh… yeah. You all have your fans, and… you have your haters. Do… do you want to know about stuff like that?"

"Why not? Not like I'm not gonna need therapy anyway," Yang says, standing up. She starts walking over to you. "But first! There's no science without practical application!" She grabs your head and you feel a warm sensation course throughout your body from her point of impact. "Something something Dust, something something passing, BOOM, you're a huntsman! Maybe." She steps away.

Everyone looks at you. You take a moment to feel whatever just happened inside of you. Yang had…

She had unlocked your Aura.

You feel alive. More alive. Like there was a tangible force inside of you, fueling your body as gas fuels a car. There was always the sensation of energy in your body, but nothing this… tangible.

"I… think it worked." You look at your hands and grip them. You feel noticeably stronger than normal, but not by a massive margin. "I think you unlocked my Aura!" It's hard to tell for sure, but you must have low Aura to begin with, and it's weaker than you'd expect.

"Only one way to test that!" Yang says, grabbing your arm.

"I mean, there's several," Blake points out. "You could do something oh okay just do that."

Ow. Yang pinched you pretty hard. The sharp pain alerts you to her strength, but as she lets go, you feel your newfound energy move. Your Aura transmits along your arm and focuses on the area Yang pinched. Immediately, the pain lowers to nothing, and your skin returns to the normal color after being bright red.

"Yup, he's got it! Boom! Science!"

"I'm having a crisis of faith here…" You stare at your arm, where your body had just auto healed it immediately. Admittedly, it was a pinch, but still. "So, you guys are real, Aura is real, GRIMM are real…" You pause. "Oh, my god, GOD is real!?"

Yang smacks you. "Get ahold of yourself and stop being dramatic. We're in the same boat, and we learned a week ago that not only do the Gods exist, they abandoned us because they think we're assholes."

"Man, it's been a rough couple of days…" Blake muses. "Oh, how was your winter break? Oh, fine, just learned magic is real, our headmaster is a thousand year old pseudo god, and that we can't kill the woman trying to kill my Gods." She says it like a joke, but wow, that is depressing as a thought. Blake's face suddenly falls and her ears bend over. "Add in… Adam…"

Wanting to help Blake not get horrifically depressed, you say, "Actually, about Salem." The four girls look at you. "Part of the benefit of you guys being a show is that people theorize all manner of stuff. When Oz asked Jinn about how to defeat Salem, the answer was HE can't." You specify, "OZPIN… OZMA can't stop her, alone, at least."

"Wow, so the stories about genies super literal are true…" Ruby jumps over in the couch, nearing you. "He fell for the oldest trick in the book."

"That's good for us. At least, I means there's a chance to win instead of none."

"So one crisis solved!" Yang cheers. "Gods… know Qrow will be glad to know that he wasn't guaranteed to be fighting for nothing." She raises a hand before anyone else speaks. "But before we get too much further into existential stuff I DO NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH RIGHT NOW, I'd rather learn how stupid people are at picking up subtext. Subtext? Does that count if it's real life?"

"Terminology aside, I'd rather talk about that than be reminded the Gods hate us."

"I don't need to hear it," Weiss says, adjusting her blanket and finally saying something. "Let me guess, everyone calls me a brat who cares too much about money? I don't need to be reminded of who I was."

"…you also love Ruby but only show it by insulting her."

"What!?"

"Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!" Ruby cheers. "Best friends forever!"

"I didn't say friends. According to the world, you two are madly in love with each other and can't keep your hands off each other."

"But– I– We–" Weiss fumes. "For one, I'm not attracted to women, and there are still times I'm flabbergasted by Ruby's antics. Sure, we're leagues better friends than when we first met, but IN LOVE?"

"i mean i dont even want a girlfriend or a boyfriend right now i just wanna be a huntress" Ruby looks entertained next to Weiss' flustered face.

"Because of THAT particular character trait, people think you don't know what sex is, Ruby."

Ruby jumps in her seat. Blushing, she says, "I mean… I know what people do when… naughty stuff happens, but I'm not a kid!" Yang raises a hand, but Ruby glares at her and says, "Yeah, I know I don't act like it, but I'm an adult!" She shoves a cookie in her mouth. Like a child would.

"Everyone thinks you're an innocent child that knows nothing about the world."

"What are you talking about? My baby sister is innocent and knows nothing about sex and adult things and naughty stuff," Yang says in a deadpan voice.

"You know everything about sex, Yang."

Yang shrugs. "I mean…"

"Gross," Ruby says.

"The first thing we saw of you was you going to Junior's club, flirting with him, then grabbing him by the balls. Add in some wolf whistles at pajama guys, and you're mischaracterized as a slut."

"Pfft. What else is new?" Yang brushes off your comment. "I still get people calling me a stupid bimbo. Sure, I've had sex before," Yang pauses and avoids Ruby's eyes, "But it was with people I'd been with for a while. I'm not easy."

"You're taking that better than I thought you would."

"I mean, it's nothing I haven't heard before. Heck, I say it from time to time. Sex feels–" Yang pauses because of Ruby again. "I mean, I've never done anything like that before. Anything else I should know?"

"Dumb blonde, too."

"Ah. Of course. If you ignore how smart I am, I'm pretty dumb."

"I'll admit, you don't give the impression of being smart, even though you are," Blake says. "People don't usually associate the girl that uses brute force for a lot of things with high intelligence."

Yang flexes, showing off her incredibly muscular human arm. "Full package, baby! So what do people think about Blake?"

You pause. You've seen plenty of people ranting about how bad a character Blake is for several reasons. "People don't understand her or her reasoning. They think you running away was cowardly and they think…"

"They think…?"

"People are too used to stories where the bad guy gets redeemed." You don't really want to get started on Adam and how, "His character was wasted," or "He could be redeemed." Adam is, was, and always would be a monster. Blake and Yang gave him plenty of chances to run, but he just kept attacking.

Blake's mood immediately drops. "Excuse me?"

"I doubt you really want to get into it, but there's a frightening number of people out there that don't know what abuse is or what it does to people. There's also plenty that straight up ignore what happened."

"Well, you're right. I don't want to get into that." Blake looks as though she can't decide whether to rage or fall into depression. You probably should have kept the fact that there are Adam sympathizers to yourself, at least for the moment.

Yang looks somberly at her arm. Barely any time had passed in between her and Blake being forced to kill Adam.

Wanting to fix the mess you made, you pull up your phone. "Hold on, I have something to show you guys. Not everybody is an idiot, so I should show you the good stuff, too." You quickly type in and search for something that would turn this situation around. Finding what you're looking for, you move to show Blake especially. She looks up and hesitates to click play.

"Oh…" Blake says, looking at your screen. Immediately, the cloud over her evaporates as she watches the video you pulled up. "That's…"

"What?" Yang asks. Blake just motions her to come watch. Ruby and Weiss follow.

"Oh, my heart! It hurts!" Yang says, looking at a video of a little girl cosplaying as Blake getting an autograph from… Blake…'s voice actress. "Wow, she sounds just like you, Blake."

"Yeah, that's who voices you. And the girl talks about how she thinks Blake is a hero and how much she looks up to her. I'm sure I could find one of those for all of you." Actually… you let the girls finish watching the most adorable video imaginable and search for the most adorable picture imaginable.

You remember how odd it is that, in your world, Ruby is married to Sun. And Ruby and Yang's dad is married to Coco. And… best to ignore that, really. Anyway, you show a picture of a baby dressed in Ruby's favorite outfit.

"OH MY GOD THAT'S THE CUTEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!" Ruby shouts, snatching your phone as everyone tries to look over her.

"That's your voice actress'…? Whatever she is to you, that's her baby."

"She looks just like you when you were a baby!" Yang says, gushing motherly/sisterly tears. "Lords, I'm crying, she's so cute."

"Yeah, you guys are PRETTY popular to cosplay. With everyone. Not just kids."

"Oh, man, you gotta show us more!" Ruby squeaks.

"Something this sweet sure washes the bad taste out of my mouth," Blake says, her smile back. "I'd like to see more."

"That baby IS cute. I wouldn't mind seeing how well people represent me…" Weiss says.

"I wanna see if people really think of me as just boobs. Hit me up with the search!"

You spend the rest of the night searching the web for all the (good) stuff RWBY fans have to offer. After starting with how badly people view their characters, you make a strong recovery letting them see all the cool cosplays, fanart, amvs, everything else. You all go to bed feeling pretty good, ignoring the overhanging anxiety of what an alternate world means.


	5. Chapter 5

Your eyes flicker open to a ceiling that you don't quite recognize. You feel shock and sit up in your spare room, which wasn't in use and had no reason to–

Oh.

Did that happen?

You shake your head and remember yesterday. The day when RWBY, the fictional team RWBY, showed up in your backyard. As your memories return to you, you remember that, yes, as far as you remember, RWBY was real and now living in your house.

Climbing out of bed, you see a mirror. You suddenly feel far more grounded. You have long, mousy blonde hair, a short beard, and a few tattoos (a Celtic knot and a world tree, not that your guests would know what those are. Wait, would they?). In the other rooms are four otherworldly girls that were each the most beautiful girl you've ever seen. They didn't have flaws like you did. They didn't have blemishes like you did.

They were just… perfect. Well, physically at least. Weiss had her scar, but it looked like it belonged there. Yang's arm was made to be on her. Like Aura, their so-called flaws existed in your world, but under different rules. Everything from their faces to their clothes told you they were from a different word.

Oh, right. Clothes. The team of girls was currently sleeping in your old clothes, none of which fit properly. You didn't exactly know how long they were supposed to be here living with you, but they needed something to blend in a bit better, seeing as the one whose outfit fit in the best had a robotic arm. Minus her jacket and the… RWBY elements, Yang rocked a tank top and some brown pants, which were things women wore here in your world.

You get dressed with a loose plan. Thankfully, you didn't really have any immediate work to do, so you're free to dick around and figure things out without stressing. Unsure of what really to do, you decide to go downstairs. Ruby intended to look at the machine in your garage, but that left Weiss, Blake, and Yang to do nothing. Blake needed a ribbon to roam around outside, and Weiss needed a more casual outfit to not stand out.

You reach the bottom of the stairs and see Blake flipping through channels on the tv. You recollect yourself as you remember that her hair was short. She nonchalantly turns the tv off and says, "Good, you've saved me."

"From what?"

"There's an alternate world with an entirely new set of hundreds of channels I can't possibly know, and yet, everything is still either schlock and depressing politics."

"My friends like to watch ghost hunter shows…"

"Is that not schlock?"

"No. No, it's some hard schlock."

"I see you have a large number of books," Blake says, happily looking towards your library, which consisted of several ceiling-height shelves of books gathered over your years of life (and which make a great decoration. Thanks, mom).

"They're better, I promise."

"I would hope so. Knowing Ruby, she won't be up for a while now that we don't really have any immediate goals, so I'm stuck reading all day."

"I was going to take Yang clothes shopping at some point. Once you get some clothes, we can do other stuff."

"I'd like that. It ought to be interesting to run around in another world."

"We're a lot less exciting, but I guess I'm looking at it from my perspective."

"I need less exciting right now," Blake says, stretching her legs in your pajamas. "As you know, I've had… a time. This is a vacation."

"A vacation you've earned. Take it slow and we'll see what Ruby says about the doohickey."

"Agreed. We also have to deal with those White Fang members that came with us; there's no telling what they've done, but we have no way of tracking them right now."

"I'm sure they'll make themselves known… They won't be lucky and meet someone who can explain things. My best guess is run around and look for abandoned houses?"

"That's something to worry about after we get our bearings. For now, I could really go for some tea."

You look back at your fridge. "Right. We need to go grocery shopping… I don't have any tea, and only some basic food."

"That's alright then. I can get some water."

"Unless you want to go grab some? We have coffee shops on every corner here. It'd only take a few minutes by car."

"Man, it feels like I haven't been in a car in years…" Blake sits up and adjusts her pajama pants, still a few sizes too big even with the tassels tied. "If it's alright with you, I'd enjoy that."

"We need to hide your ears, though." You dig through your closet and produce a hoodie. "If you don't mind."

"I don't have much choice, do I? I suppose I'll live, though I won't lie; it's pretty annoying that I have to hide my ears again."

"Unless you can convince people you just wear a cat headband at all times?"

Blake wordlessly takes the hoodie from you, puts it on, and flips up her cover. "We don't plan on staying here too long, so hopefully it won't be an issue." You toss her some sandals as well, seeing as her boots were a bit much for this world, especially in her outfit.

"Let's head out then." You lead Blake to your car, which thankfully wasn't involved in the garage explosion. Once you're both in, you start heading out of your suburb past the country roads towards a coffee shop. You pass an aging farmhouse, creaking almost audible. Once Blake follows your sightline, you say, "We're gonna need to find those White Fang guys before they hurt someone. We should maybe check out any abandoned buildings nearby."

"Good idea. How many are there?"

"No idea. I don't exactly keep an eye out for abandoned buildings. Do you?"

Though you're looking forward to the road, you see Blake's eyebrow raise. Oh, yeah, she was a former White Fang member.

"Right. Dumb question."

"Dumb question. I'll have an idea, so we can drive around later. They won't have gone far."

"On that note," you say, pulling up to the coffee shop. "Feel free to get whatever."

Blake hops out of the car. "We should get the others something, as well." She suddenly gets a bit flustered. "I-if that's alright."

"Like I'd antagonize Yang, and Weiss loves coffee if I'm not mistaken. It's fine."

"Thanks. I know what they'll want, so I can order. Coffee's the same here, right?"

"Yup."

"Overpriced, pretentious, but delicious?"

"Yup."

"Glad to know there are multiversal constants. Caffeine being one of them is comforting."

"Hard to imagine school without it."

You and Blake enter the coffee shop. Thankfully, nobody pays any mind to the fact that Blake is wearing oversized clothes with the hood up, so you wait in line until Blake orders everyone's favorites. She gets her tea, Weiss gets her coffee, Ruby gets a vanilla coffee (with "blasphemous amounts of sugar"), Yang gets an iced coffee, and you pick up something for yourself. Once you pay, you remember just how pretentious and expensive coffee is; while paying for your favorite heroines drinks isn't unwelcome, budgeting was quickly becoming more and more necessary. If the girls stayed any longer, that'd become a problem.

You pull back up to your house (in the front, as the garage was occupied by a teleporter…), drinks in tow. You enter the door to find Yang flipping through channels on the tv, spread out on the couch. "Yo. Wondering where you two were." She spies you have drinks and sits up. "Sweet! You got coffee?"

Blake picks out Yang's drink and hands it to her. "Yes. Vacation requirement."

"Agreed. Thanks… Mike?"

"Mark."

"Thanks, Mark!" Yang takes a long drink from her iced coffee. "Rubes is out back checking out our ticket out of here. Once she figures it out, we can prep for going back and meeting up with everyone."

Blake suddenly looks confused and tries to speak. Stopping herself, she looks around until her eyes meet a table containing most of RWBY's extra things. Walking up to it, she finds her scroll and starts searching through it.

"What? You get a message or something?" Yang asks.

"That's the thing. Do our scrolls work? What DOES work?" Blake thumbs through her apps and checks several of them. "I don't have any new messages, so I imagine JNPR… Jaune or the others can't reach us. Nora would have blown us up with a billion messages by now for sure."

Interested in Blake's experiment, Yang retrieves her scroll and checks it. "Same here. But what if…" She types something and presses the touch screen. A moment later, Blake's phone blips, signaling a new message. The two girls stare at each other, dumbfounded. Maintaining eye contact, Yang dials Blake's number and holds her scroll up to her ear.

Blake's scroll rings. Confused, she answers it. "Hello?" echoes from Yang's phone, showing they went through.

"Hey. I think our scrolls work," Yang says into her scroll.

Blake answers like she was on a call. "Yeah. I think they do."

"This is weird. They shouldn't, should they?"

Blake hangs up with a look of exasperation. "No, they shouldn't. There's no signal from a tower, so how could they?"

"Could it be reaching through the teleporter somehow?" you ask.

"That sounds like it shouldn't be possible, but I don't have a better idea," Blake says. "At the very least, we can still communicate."

"Wait, didn't your scroll get busted?"

Blake jumps up, sheepishly. "Uhh… shh." She shrinks a bit.

Yang smirks at Blake's shyness. "Blakey here may or may not have lifted the scroll off of one of the guys at the Atlas base."

"I was going to send it back! We're on a, 'Save-The-World,' mission and we need to be able to talk to each other! Once we got to Atlas, I was going to buy a new one and send this one to Jaune's sister! Then her wife could drop it off at the base and say she found it! I had a plan!"

"Still stealing~"

"Shut up…" Blake whines. "Save-The-World mission."

"Whatever you say."

Before Blake has an opportunity to retort, the back door opens and Ruby pops in. She was still wearing your old shirt and Yang's shorts, both of which were sliding down her body. She notices your tray of drinks and zips over.

"Yeah! Coffee coffee coffee! I needed a pick me up…"

"With considerable amounts of sugar," Blake says.

Ruby eagerly accepts her drink and starts chugging it. Yang takes the opportunity to ask, "So what's the diagnosis, doc? How long til we're out of here."

Ruby begins sputtering through her drink, trying to talk. Once she regains her composure, her face drops. "The good news is it looks like it can be fixed. The bad news is I don't have nearly enough of the parts I need, plus it's partially run off of Dust and Aura, things we're sorely lacking."

You watch Blake and Yang both get a look of concern. The blonde asks, "So what's that mean?"

"It means we're stuck here. For a long while." 


	6. Chapter 6

"Well, dicks."

"Not the term I'd use, but yes, that doesn't sound great."

"You guys!" Ruby whines. "This is serious! We can't get back until we fix that, and it's going to take forever!"

"If we can't do anything, worrying isn't going to help," Blake says. "We'll just have to trust that things will work out."

"Trust!? We don't have the lamp! I had it on me when we raided the base! If the wrong people find it–"

Blake puts a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby. Trust me, I have torn myself apart worrying about things out of my control. We have to believe."

"I feel the same," Yang nods. "Raven decided she couldn't control everything around her when she found out about Salem, so she gave up and ran away. I'm not going to shut off and hide behind a bunch of thieves just cuz we get stuck on a vacation planet. We just have to fix the machine, then fix whatever's broken once we get back."

"What's all the yelling about?" Weiss says, descending the stairs. You blush as she meets the ground floor only wearing an old oversized t-shirt that you had lying around. At least this time she had something on underneath… She has a look of sudden realization. "Wait, what's wrong? Is the machine broken?"

"Well. That's not good…" Weiss says after Ruby catches her up on everything. "That's very… My…"

"Yup, we're stuck here." Blake walks over to the couch and sits down. Reclining, she says, "But as I said before, there's nothing we can do about it. We just have to trust everyone to keep things safe while we work on the machine."

"So, what's up with it anyway? Why's it gonna take so long, Ruby?" Yang asks.

"The main problem is parts. From what I gathered, there's a bunch of explodey stuff that needs to be replaced, and getting them is going to be difficult unless this world is different. Then, we have to worry about Dust; we don't have enough right now, so our only hope is to somehow rework the thing to take another energy source, or hope the White Fang members have some. Lastly, Aura. This is probably the easiest thing to fix, though. It looks like it used to drain someone's Aura all at once, but I think I can work it into a battery that we can fill up over time."

"That all sounds complicated…" Yang says. "But at least it's doable."

"Dust is an issue, but I might be able to help," Weiss says. "If being the heiress to the SDC has taught me anything, it's how to operate Dust efficiently. When the time comes, I know I'll be able to help conserve it."

"That means we can't use Dust rounds against the White Fang."

"Well, actually," you say, finally entering the conversation. "That's a bad idea for several reasons. One, guns are really freaking dangerous here. One bullet can kill. One Dust bullet can super kill. Two, they're regulated and also not built into swords. You can't walk around with any of them, let alone fire one. Three, you guys are weakened here. Ruby, if you can barely lift Crescent Rose, then there's no way you can fire it. Blake, yours is probably the only one you can use without breaking something."

"Great! More problems!" Weiss rages.

"So we're stuck here, we have no money, no communications, no Aura, no weapons..."

"Weiss still has no pants…"

Weiss pulls down her shirt-dress. "Thank you for reminding me I'm dressed like a one night stand, Yang. That's exactly what I wanted."  
"On that note…" you interrupt. "I imagine you would all prefer having clothes that fit."

"Very much so."

"And seems as though you'll be here a while, so it will probably be best if I buy you some clothes. None of your stuff really fits in around here."

"Do you have the money for that?" Yang asks. "Like, I get we need clothes, but we kinda still need to stay here, plus food and all. Those bills will add up fast."

"That can be a problem for later. For now, I know a bargain place where you can get some stuff cheap." You can feel Weiss cringe at the mention of cheap clothes. "Yang, minus the jacket and you'll have clothes that look normal here. You can come with me and get everyone some clothes."

"Even with the uh…" Yang holds up her robot arm. "You said you don't have stuff like this."

"We do have prosthetics, but not ones with guns in them. If anyone asks, it's just a good prosthetic, not a one to one."

"Gotcha. Well, I'm ready now and Weiss looks like she desperately wants something *super hot and flirty* to wear."

"Yang Xiao Long, you buy me a proper outfit or so help me–"

"Relax! Like a bargain store is gonna have a mesh top and ripped tights in your size."

"What kind of perverted thoughts are you having about dressing me up like some sort of… offbrand hooker!?"

"The kind you don't want me repeating. Cmon, Mark." Weiss glares at Yang as she retreats upstairs to dress. She comes back wearing her usual pants and boots, but with a basic hoodie instead of all her leather gear. Save her black hand, she looks totally normal, if super attractive.

"Alright, then. You guys get settled and we'll be back with some clothes. Then, we can figure out about the White Fang members and go from there."

"Works for me, at least considering the situation." Blake shacks up on the couch with a book.

"I'll make a list of things I'll need to fix the machine!"

"I'll… Ugh, I don't even know. Ruby, I'll help you."

"Aces! See ya later!" Yang leads you out to your car. You start heading to the bargain store, weaving between quiet streets just outside of town. "So, this is all a lot."

"Yeah. But it'll work out."

Yang raises an eyebrow. "You sure? Last few weeks–months, years, whatever–have been kinda rough."

"The show's called RWBY. Not too many stories out there where the good guys lose in the end."

"Let's hope it's that kinda story… I could do with a fairy tale ending after…" Yang holds up her arm.

"It'll work out. If not, I'll petition the writers to make your story have a happy ending."

"That won't work, but thanks anyway. I'm sure we'll figure it out if nothing else."

"Yeah, I'm sure you will."

"…"

"…"

"So were you serious about the mesh top?"

Yang smirks and punches your arm. You both continue about whatever until you reach the clothing store. You follow her to the women's section, where she starts sorting through clothes for her team. She checks a price tag.

"Wow, cheaper than I thought. Still, this will all start adding up fast. You sure you can float us for however long?"

You think. By no means are you poor, but you were basically paying for you and you alone. Four extra people ate four times as much food, wore four times as much clothes, and had four times more expenses. "For now, yeah. The essentials at least, but not forever."

"Tch," Yang sputtered. "You've already done plenty, but it wouldn't be fair to you to drain you of all your cash just so we can peace off." She puts back a slightly more expensive top. "If we stay for much longer… we're gonna need a way of making cash."

You scratch your head. "I mean, that'd be nice, but it kinda feels weird, right? Like, you're… heroes. I can't picture you behind a desk."

"Pffh, I guarantee you people have fantasizes about me as a sexy office lady in one of those pencil skirts. Course, I'd be over the desk, not behind it…"

"That definitely sounds plausible," you say in a tone that you hope does not convey whether or not you have see fanart of Yang as a sexy office lady.

"Oh, right. We're characters…" Yang grins. "So like, that means we have porn, don't we?"

"I do not know. I would never look at porn," you say as flatly as possible.

"Huh. That's a thought." Yang looks down at her chest, sadly covered by a sweatshirt. "I can imagine what kind of stuff porn-me gets up to…"

"In all seriousness, a series where the main characters are four incredibly well-designed girls of supposedly-questionable sexualities makes for great porn fodder. You guys are pretty popular in that community." You're glad Yang brought this up. Judging from metrics of sites-you-totally-don't-look-at (and the obvious appeal), the girls are easy to make porn of. Yang understands this more than most other story characters brought to life.

"Maybe seeing Weiss in a mesh top isn't such a pipe dream after all…" Yang holds up a thin white t-shirt about Weiss' size. She confirms that it's see-through. "I would, but I can't waste your money."

"Much appreciated."

"And yeah, I don't mind earning some cash. It's the least we can do to help pay you back for letting us crash at your place."

"It'll be a little complicated. Luckily, I live outside town, so there's probably a few places that won't need any special ID or anything. Blake will have to be careful, though."

"She made it half a semester without us figuring it out. If Faunus really didn't exist here, people are kinda forced to think it's a bow right? OH, I need to get her a bow!"

"I actually work from home, so that might obviate some problems. Ruby should probably stay so she could fiddle with the machine without worrying about work."

"Works for me. I need to check if Bumblebee still works, but I at least have a ride. I'm going to have to convince Weiss she needs to work for a living, which might be difficult for her even with a car."

"I'll try and find some low-stress jobs that I can set you guys up with. First, we should check on the White Fang guys."

"Agreed. But first, Weiss needs pants!" Yang holds up a pair of booty shorts that looked like they'd be tight even on Weiss' slender frame. You laugh and assist Yang in finding clothes that fit and fit day-to-day life. You also start working on cover stories for why Yang has a prosthetic arm, why Blake wears a bow at all times, and why Weiss now dyes her hair white.

Soon enough, you return to your house with a few sets of clothes for everyone. Though you still need to go out for groceries and other things, the girls can now all come with you with proper clothes.

Ruby trades her corset and cape for a few cute black dress and some overalls. Though upset to learn capes weren't a thing here, she settles for a long red scarf to accessorize. Her other outfits consist of band t-shirts and jean shorts, though she also seems fine wearing some of your old shirts kind of like a punk-girl aesthetic where it hangs over a shoulder.

Weiss, thankful to wear something proper, receives a few skirts and blouses, plus a casual blue dress. She begrudgingly accepts the subpar discount clothes, but fakes as though it's fine. She's used to the finest in fashion, but she does look fantastic even in your grounded non-royalty clothes.

Blake, one of two to have relatively normal clothes, receives tennis shoes to replace her thigh high boots. Otherwise, her crop top and black pants fit in well with this world, so she receives a few shirts and some pants. Yang also chose a few different ribbons for use as bows, including some polka dots and colors other than black.

Yang, second of two to have a good outfit, settled for a few tops and some short shorts. She's relatively close to your size, so she could also pass wearing some of your shirts, only she wears them far better than you. She sadly accepted tops with long sleeves to cover her arm, but adds her usual fanservice with some cleavage-baring tops. She also got a pair of gloves to hide her hand, as being a little quirky is a bit more believable than a custom-painted, 1 to 1 advantaged prosthetic arm with a gun in it.

In addition, each of the girls got some suitable pajamas and a more professional-looking outfit. Yang suggested getting jobs, so an interview-worthy outfit was necessary even if they wouldn't be getting anything high-end. Thankfully, nothing put a MASSIVE dent in your wallet, but yeah, now you start the process of getting RWBY jobs. Otherwise, you were about ready to hunt for the White Fang members. 


	7. Chapter 7

Now that RWBY had access to the most important element of combat (clothes), the five of you start trying to figure out how to proceed. Your problems kept adding up the more you thought about it, but there were a few that sort of took precedence.

One, RWBY needed to fix the machine that would allow them to return home. As of now, they were stuck on your version of earth, with barely any Aura, no weapons, and no lamp.

Two, you needed to find out what to do about the White Fang. Sure, only a few members made it here, but not only were they dangerous, they were Faunus. Faunus didn't exist in your world. Knowledge of them getting out would be a bit of a problem, considering. Oh, yeah, and they were terrorists that hated humans–in a world where everyone but them was a human.

Three, money was quickly becoming an issue. You couldn't afford to pay for five people's worth of food, clothes, and other necessities. Thankfully, RWBY came with working scrolls, so that was at least something. Yang also confirmed that Bumblebee worked, so she had a ride; your cover story was that she worked on specialty vehicles, explaining why she had such a weird motorcycle, but having a vehicle opened up too many possibilities to hide it away.

Fourth, secrecy. You couldn't let people know that A. alternate worlds existed, B. that four outworlders were living in your house, C. that you had an extra dimensional teleporter in your garage. So far, it didn't seem to be that hard, but the longer things went on, the more they had a chance of problems.

God, that's a lot to concern over. Wait, you guess you should correct that to, "Gods," seeing as RWBY (the show) confirms that RWBY (the characters) believe in gods that not only exist, but are gigantic assholes.

Oh, yeah, another thing to worry about was that your car was meant to fit 4 1/2 people in it. You took the driver seat, Yang shotgun, and Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were snuggled quite tightly in the back. Theoretically, your tiny car fit five, but those backseats were not meant for comfort.

"That's a good place to start," Blake said, motioning to the side of the road.

Your goal for today was to try and find the White Fang members. You couldn't allow them to run around freely, so you had to deal with them. HOW you deal with them depends on what they do to respond, but everyone was hoping for the diplomatic solution.

You pull over and agree with Blake. Being a former member, she had insight on how White Fang operated. She pointed out an abandoned farmhouse not too far from your home/where the White Fang members ran off from which you imagine would be a good hiding spot. They were used to poorer conditions, so an abandoned house wouldn't be a terrible place to sleep, especially for a low profile. If you remember correctly, the place was scheduled for demolition, but nobody seemed particularly fussed about doing that, so the creaking house stood alone with a considerable amount for yard around it.

Oh, yeah, at some point you'll have to tell RWBY that you live right outside of Austin, Texas. Oh, yeah, and you'll have to tell them why that place in particular matters. It wouldn't be long until RTX would be upon you, which would be an interesting conversation.

You, Yang and Blake exit your car. Yang has her robot arm with a gun in it, so she actually has near full combat capabilities. Blake has her broken Gambol Shroud, though she'd removed the blade, leaving pretty much just a normal pistol. You have a bat and knowledge of this world's physical limitations, which gives you perspective on how to fight without superpowers. That's actually more useful than it probably sounds; you imagine the White Fang guys haven't really figured out that their Aura was incredibly weak and that their physical limitations were far stricter. Ruby couldn't operate Crescent Rose (not that a giant red scythe gun could be used in public without questions being asked), and Weiss' limited Aura meant Myrtenaster was just a really heavy rapier. They stayed back and provided the cover story that the five of you were filming a video, which could excuse exploring an abandoned house if you got a lucky pull on an investigator.

"I spy movement upstairs," Blake said. God, she was good at this. Kinda upsetting when you think about it, but helpful nonetheless.

You and Yang take a position on either side of the creaking front door. Blake leans up against it, listening carefully with her Faunus ears. She nods, confirming that she heard something running around inside. Raising her voice, she calls, "This place isn't Remnant. We have information you don't and that you really need."

The three of you waited for any sort of reply.

"We didn't come to fight, but we are prepared to. It would benefit us both to talk about things."

Blake was met with more silence.

"We're willing to talk things over. We need to get back to Remnant and you do, too. Cooperating is our best option."

Still nothing.

"Plan B it is," Blake says, back to normal volume. With a final booming voice, she calls, "We are leaving a scroll handle and basic information. We know where you are, but you don't know where we are. Contact us if you want to know what's going on and how to fix it. Most importantly, DO NOT USE DUST FOR ANYTHING. IT MUST BE SAVED." She said her last part in a tone that conveyed that, yeah, Dust depletion would result in nothing good. Blake slid a piece of paper under the door. On it were her contact info for her scroll, the fact that this wasn't Remnant, and several important bits of information like how there aren't Faunus around and that Aura is lowered.

Hopefully, if reason outweighed needless hate, then you and RWBY could actually open up a dialogue with the rogue White Fang members. With circumstances as they were, you couldn't exactly afford to try killing each other. They couldn't move around without attracting too much attention, considering the fact that they were likely sporting dog ears or a cat tail.

"That actually went better than expected," Blake says, walking back to the car.

"That's a word for it…" you say.

"No fight, no attention, and we found them before anyone else did. Hopefully they figure out the real stakes and stay put. They're used to that, at least."

"As long as they don't know where we live," Yang says. "Hopefully they don't know which field they ran off from. That gives us the advantage, considering we have the machine. Wouldn't want them running off with it."

"Considering how long it took us to figure it out…"

"You did have me to help with that."

"Thanks Mike," Yang says. She smirks.

"Mark."

"Mark." You feel Yang's doing this on purpose. "There ARE a fair few fields around here. Plus all the houses look the same. Woo, monotonous suburbia!"

"Saving the day, one unreasonably expensive water bill at a time."

"So how did it go?" Ruby asks as you filter into the car. "I heard you yelling, so that's good, right?"

"I'm 99% sure that they're there," Blake says. "They didn't immediately try to kill us, which for displaced White Fang means things went well. Hopefully they listen and we can talk things over."

"I still can't believe that we're going along with this," Weiss grumbles, her mood worsening by the second as she gets cramped further into the back seat. "Especially after everything that's happened."

"We know," Blake and Yang say, simultaneously and somberly. Considering that they personally saw to the removal of the leader of the White Fang…

"What matters is that you guys are both in bad situations," you say. "If fiction has taught me anything, then two groups that share a common problem eventually work things out in the end."

"That isn't helpful," Weiss grumbles. Again.

"Considering we ARE fiction… I think," Yang reasons. "I think that has a bit more credence than you give it credit for, Weiss."

"Worst comes to worst, we just jump them,' Blake says. "They don't want to listen to us? We surprise attack them, steal their Dust, and take them back with us by force. We'd be doing them a favor."

"Oh, feisty. I like it."

"That's after plans C-Y, Yang." Blake holds us her scroll. She stops you from turning. "Do a few circles. We don't want to be followed back to your house." You comply. Shaking her scroll, she says, "It all depends on whether or not they respond. We can keep trying to talk to them, but if they force our hand, I won't feel bad."

"My main concern is keeping them from doing something crazy," you say. You start circling back home, taking weird routes to obfuscate things. "Last thing I want is them getting found out." You start to wonder what would happen if people found out about Faunus. Considering racism is already a huge problem, adding in non-human hybrids that shouldn't exist won't do. Your mind wanders to a dissection table tv scientist use on aliens. God knows how governments treat anyone they view as less than human, even if there's no difference. Not even Jacques Schnee throws innocents in cages.

"So, now that we've taken care of the most pressing matters, what now?" Blake says. "Fixing the machine is gonna be a time sink anyway, so no point rushing it when there's only so much we can do at a time."

Ruby perks up as best she can in the cramped back seat. "I gotta make a list of what I need and what we can fix or improve ourselves."

"Of course, but I mean now-now. The stressful part is over, so there's nothing to do but wait and hope we hear from the White Fang. As long as we're here, we may as well enjoy things."

"You're taking this a little too well, Blake," Weiss says. "We're trapped. Sure it's a gilded cage, but I've dealt with plenty of those already in Atlas."

"We've been given an opportunity to rest. Considering everything that's happened, I'm not about to spend that time stressing about things we can't change."

"Lighten up, Weiss!" Ruby cheers. "Blake's right. I'll fix that machine as fast as I can, but worrying about it won't make it take any less time."

"I'm still not pleased with any of–"

"None of us are, Weiss," Yang interjects. "But we have to keep moving forward. It's what we do."

"With all that said…" you say, stopping everyone. "We're home." You pull into your parking spot. "Blake's right. You guys have been through a lot. You should take things slow for a bit."

"All in favor?" Yang asks.

"I," everyone says save Weiss.

"Oh, fine. I."

"Now, you have an entire universe's worth of schlocky movies to watch. What's say I put one on and order more pizza? We can worry about everything else later."

"I!"

"…I."

The five of you filter into your house and take positions on your couches. Considering all they came with was one set of clothes and scrolls that can call, but can't do anything else, they were short on things to entertain themselves with. They couldn't even really train, considering their Aura situation. Luckily, as you pointed out, you have every piece of media in the world that you could show them. Actually, one in particular might be worth asking about. You'd mentioned it and shown the aftereffects, but…

"So weird question that I'm prepared to hear a no for."

"Go on."

"You guys want to watch RWBY?"


	8. Chapter 8

You did think it was worth asking, but the answer was an astounding, "No!"

Admittedly, asking four girls to watch an almost voyeuristic look at their intimate lives was a dumb question. No, RWBY did not want to watch RWBY.

Instead, Ruby and Yang were getting invested in a super hero movie while Blake thumbed through a comic, Weiss diligently writing things down, going over equations and formulas on Dust. She'd taken stock of what the four of them had and was doing the math to figure out how much it resulted in and what could be best used and how. Despite her situation, she couldn't help but stress and attempt to do whatever she could to make her stay last a second shorter.

A ping goes off. Blake snatches her scroll off the table and reads it, scanning over every letter with laser focus. Ruby pauses the movie and asks, "Well? Is it them?"

"Well, I don't have caller ID since this isn't my scroll, but judging from the fact that they start out by saying, 'We read your letter,' I'd say it's not one of you three." Blake goes over every line a few times before reading it out loud. "We don't fully believe you about this being another world, but we have also noticed the changes in Aura. We also haven't confirmed about there being no other Faunus. We're willing to talk. Give us information." She sighed. "Oh, thank you! They actually are willing to talk things out."

"Don't forget they're still terrorists," Yang said. "We WERE raiding their bad guy base, after all."

"On the plus side, they might actually not be. Sure, they're White Fang, but there's a chance that they're just kids that felt they had nowhere else to turn to and were swayed like I was. If they're not immediately murdering and are willing to talk, they might not be all bad."

"They're still TERRORISTS!" Weiss shouts. "You can't–"

"Ilia was White Fang, Weiss. Blake was, too," you say, firmly. Actually, the show didn't show much about Weiss and Ilia. It's possible she didn't really get the whole thing about her and her redemption. "Not all of them are as bad as the ones you fought."

"Thanks, Mark," Blake says. "It's not your fault for not knowing, Weiss. Everyone paints them as a group of monsters, but trust me, a lot of the people there were just scared kids looking for a leader at the end of the day. Ilia was loyal to them, but Sun and I managed to convince her she was on the wrong side."

Yang snaps her fingers before anyone else says anything. Taking her place in the conversation, she says, "I get what you mean, Blake, but we can't assume that. They're in a bad position, so they might be desperate. They aren't spitefully angry, but that doesn't mean they're good, either. Plus, this is a weird super-tech teleportation machine base we're talking about; stands to reason they would have the smart guys there, not kids."

"Maybe one of them has a Semblance that would work into it somehow?"

"Good question, Ruby," Blake says, looking back to her scroll and biting her finger. "Right now, we need information. We should charge info on their Semblances for giving out our info. Plus anything else we can think of."

"What do we need to know?" Ruby asks, thinking to herself. "Weiss, start a list." Weiss nodded and grabbed a fresh piece of paper. "1. Semblances and if they can be used for the machine processing."

"If any of them worked on the machine, or how much they know about it. Do they have documentation of any kid?" Weiss writes down her thought.

"I'm going to send a message saying we're gathering our info and that we'll trade," Blake says, typing into the scroll. "How much Dust they have, if any. And any parts of anything."

"And weapons."

"And weapons. Depending on how much they know about how the machine works, we might be able to convince them we need their weapons for parts."

"So, 1. Semblances, 2. Knowledge of the machine, 3. Dust/Weapons…"

"Faunus traits. How well can they integrate?"

Suddenly, you remember who you're dealing with. RWBY was a team, and a well oiled machine at that. They were going over every option they could think of seamlessly, taking and adding information as necessary and altering it until it was perfect. You have no idea what to say to assist in this discussion; it's hard to think about what information is necessary when you're dealing with something that shouldn't really exist in the first place. At least RWBY had knowledge of such technological marvels, plus the fantastical elements like Dust. You sit and watch as they finalize the list of things they want in exchange for the information about the White Fang.

"Ok… I doubt we'll get all of what we're asking, but some is more than none." Blake types out the last of her message. "And sent. Now to see how they respond. I tried wording everything somewhat passively and open, but direct about the main points. Hopefully, they reveal a bit extra so we can piece together personalities a bit."

"Any info is good info," Yang says. "Please please PLEASE be reasonable!" She crosses her fingers.

"Man, it feels like I'm back waiting to hear my test results in Port's class…" Blake snickers. "Or like, a response to asking someone out via text. It's good to feel some harmless nerve-wracking instead of near-death nerve-wracking once in a while."

"Your first mistake is asking someone out via text, BB," Yang laughs.

"Please. I only send formal letters declaring my affections."

"I never thought I'd say it, but I'd kill to be in one of Port's lectures," Ruby says. "I never got more restful sleep in my life!"

"I dunno sis, I seem to remember you ready to tear your own heart out every time we had a test and you didn't study."

"Maybe you SHOULDN'T have been sleeping!"

"I was tired! And Port was sooooo boring!"

"Hold up, they texted back," Blake interrupts, waving her hand down to quiet RWY. "We are going to talk it over. None of us worked on the project directly, but we have some info. The rest we need to discuss before telling you." She sighed. "This is stressful… Now we have to just wait more while they decide what to tell us."

"I think we can trust their info on the machine and Dust stuff, at least." Ruby shifts up in her seat. "Anything personal, I say we take with a grain of salt. If they plan on betraying us at any point, then they'll want to keep their powers a secret unless it benefits them for us to know."

"Wow, Ruby. Did not expect you to be so distrustful of them…"

"It makes sense," you say, finally reminding everyone that you were there. "Ozpin was the king of Lie-By-Omission. If they control the information, they'll spin it if they want."

"By that logic, should we be telling them EVERYTHING?" Weiss asks.

"Yes," Ruby says, firmly. "We're not lying. We can't expect them to trust us unless we're honest. That's where Ozpin slipped."

"I hope Oscar is doing okay…" Blake adds. "He and Jaune still aren't on the best terms…"

"I hope he can live without Ruby around," Yang snickers. "Maybe he'll move on and find a different girl to crush on, huh, Ruby? Then what would you do~"

"What are you talking about!?" Ruby shouts, suddenly turning red.

Yang stifles laughter. "He's totally into you, you know. A cute-as-a-button farm boy three years younger than you surrounded by all of us? He's GONNA pick one to crush on."

"Oh, my gosh that's weirddd! I mean, he's really nice, but I don't think now is a good time for anything like that!"

Yang glance at Blake with an, "Is she for real?" face. Blake shrugs.

"She is right, Yang," Weiss says, already finished with the conversation. "After all, Ozpin is still in there somewhere."

"I can't believe you're teasing your sister about having two boyfriends, one of which is married and possibly thousands of years old."

"Ew, gross! You're right, that does make it super weird." Yang leans back on the couch and stares at the ceiling. There's a moment of silence before she says, "We're not going to let him be overtaken." She tilts her head towards you with a somber smile. "Not that kind of story, right?" Her robotic arm makes a metallic creaking noise, causing her to let out a sad breath.

"I don't think so. He's going to be his own person."

Everyone goes quiet. You can only imagine how many times RWBY has thought about the situation with Oscar and Ozpin. If they didn't do anything, their friend would be overwritten, rendering him dead for all intents and purposes. Who knows how many times this happened already? How many people comprised Ozpin? It wasn't a pleasant thought.

That said, RWBY was a series about hope. About beating back the dark, even if it is a struggle. About moving forward. About victory, all from a simple soul.

"He'll make it. I promise."

You hear a collective sigh. Things went quiet until Blake got another alert on her phone.

"We will send information on the teleportation machine once we compile everything we have. We each have different information on our scrolls, and a briefcase of papers. We have three magazines of Dust ammo and a box containing a special variation we think was used as the main power source in the machine. We will keep the ammo until you prove it's necessary to get the machine working." Blake sighs. "Standard issue White Fang rifles are heavy recoil! You won't be able to use them with such low Aura, anyway! Grr…"

"Keep reading."

"One of ours has a Semblance that can teleport objects. He was brought in because of it, but he's young and didn't work directly on the project. The rest don't have powers that could affect it."

"That's actually great! We can use him to see if we can work around stuff."

"We have three of us. One of us has a skink tongue, another steer horns, and the last weasel whiskers."

"Also great. A tongue and whiskers can be covered pretty easily. Horns will have to stay in their base."

"That's more than I expected honestly," Weiss says, relieved.

"Yeah," Yang adds. "The last thing we need is that briefcase. It might have what we need on how to fix it."

"If we can, we should have them show us the teleportation Semblance. Could be useful to know."

"Alright, then." Blake starts typing. "I'll ask for a meeting. Somewhere in that field."

"Woof," Ruby says. "Yang, you should be the middleman. You have the most Aura, and you have your arm gun, so you'd be the best to fight if it comes to that."

"Sounds good."

"It's a plan, then. Now we can start figuring out where to go from here."

"If I may," you say, raising a hand. "Now that it sounds like things will be settling down, we need to start considering jobs. Depending on how the meeting with the White Fang goes, we'll have to figure out how they'll eat."

"We're pretty good at skimping, so that's a plus," Blake says. "They be able to figure it out, if by under-the-table methods."

"We don't want attention."

"They're good at not attracting attention."

"In that case, let's set up that meeting and start looking at your career paths."

The girls nod and you start searching through job applications near you. Not the most exciting way to spend time with story heroines, but important nonetheless. You do understand why stories tend to skip out on the day-to-day lives of their protagonists, because boy, is applying for jobs boring even when you have a robot arm. 


	9. Chapter 9

God damn, was applying for jobs boring. Of course, things get exponentially more difficult when the people applying don't have any sort of US ID. Without the proper papers, finding jobs for the girls is going to be a little difficult. At the very least, you live in a small area right outside a major city in Texas. Hopefully, the hometown vibes are strong enough that you can disappear into that good old fashioned country life, where people can get a start with nothing but a name and a good work ethic.

Another thing to worry about is the White Fang members. They were hanging around in an abandoned farmhouse, which means that they're kind of ticking time bombs. Hopefully, nothing comes of them and they stay quiet until you and RWBY fix the teleportation machine. And hopefully, the meeting you set up with them doesn't end in you getting shot. In order to find out about one of their members and their teleportation Semblance, you'd be meeting them in person. A lot to worry about.

Those can both come at a later time. For now…

"Officer?" you ask, opening your front door. Before you is a bog-standard police officer, who silently looks past you into your house. Blake was behind a corner on the couch and Yang was messing about in the kitchen. "Can I help you?" you ask, piecing together why a cop might be coming to your house. Thankfully, the cop wouldn't be able to see Blake, reducing the chances of her being seen without her bow.

"Afternoon," the cop says in a friendly voice. "We've had some reports of suspicious activity in this area and were asking around. You haven't seen anything going on, have you?"

Well, damn.

It was a pipe dream, but you had hoped that things would stay quiet. It'd been a few days since RWBY and some White Fang members somehow teleported into your garage, but no one aside from you actually knew. Thankfully, they came at the perfect time where nobody was physically around to see them. Still, there was a few things that would have been hard to miss.

You think for a moment. You… have to lie to a cop, otherwise things will likely escalate. There's enough evidence in the news to inform you that A. people from another world and B. a cat girl from another world wouldn't exactly be treated with the most respect. Should they be found out, RWBY wouldn't be able to just go back home. You fear dissection, but the most likely possibility is that RWBY gets detained, interrogated, experimented on… God, there's a lot.

Hell, the idea of the military getting ahold of Aura and Dust frightens you. You don't want to introduce superhumans into modern wars any more than you want them running around with Fire Bullets.

All in all, it's best to not let anyone find out about RWBY. But you can't be completely clueless without drawing suspicion. This was already annoying…

"Uh…" you say, pretending to think, but actually deciding what information to pass on. "I didn't see anything, but there was this big noise the other day that people are talking about. Don't know what it was, but nothing else really happened."

"You don't know anything about it?"

"Nope. Just say people talking in the neighborhood chat. Nothing's been going on with my electricity or anything like that, so I didn't think anymore about it. Why? Is there a problem?"

"We're still looking into it at the moment. You and your neighbors will be informed when there's more updates."

"All right then. Anything else?" you say, hoping you sound casual despite the racing in your chest.

"No, there isn't. If that's the case, have a nice day."

The officer nods and begins to walk off, promoting you to thank him and close your door. You step back in and let out a massive breath.

"So… that went well!" Yang says, setting out plates.

"From now on, none of you can answer the door. I just had to lie to a cop, but I think I prefer that to you guys saying anything."

"So cops coming to your door isn't normal here, I take it?" Blake asks.

"We get gunshots here once a week and I've never seen a cop in the area. They're aware something big happened."

"You can't trust us to not blab?" Yang says, smirking. "My poor heart."

"You know what he means, Yang," Blake says, looking up from one of your many books. "We have a high chance of slipping up and saying something they won't understand."

Yang dramatically waves her face with her hand. Switching to a country accent, she says, "Oh, my, Mr. Offisa. I'm just a simple woman with my Dust-powered motahsai-kel and my robot-hand." She waves her mechanical arm.

"Were those words? Mark, I think she's losing it already."

"She got the right idea. You guys don't know what normal life here is like. If you start talking about Semblances or Dust or whatever, people might catch on."

"We should tell the White Fang guys that there's people investigating. They need to be extremely careful. We can do that later when we meet up."

"Good call. The guy didn't say anything past, 'suspicious activity,' which means they probably don't know much."

"The machine probably let off some big power surge if I had to guess. Something that'd alert the higher ups."

"Yeah, something like that. They hopefully don't know anything about you guys."

"And let's keep it that way. Less trouble the better." Yang sets the table with her freshly cooking meal. A huge benefit of having her live with you is that she knows how to cook far better than you ever did. "Enjoy~" she says, putting down a large pot of pasta.

"Which again brings us to money issues…" Blake says, setting her book down and moving to the table. "'We can't be noticed,' followed shorty by, 'we need to go out and get jobs.'"

"There's a couple of at-home jobs out there. I work from home," you say. "I put in a word to see if there are any openings."

"You code, right?" Yang asks in between bites of pasta. "Ruby's good at that."

"Pretty much. They don't ask a lot of questions, either, and she wouldn't have to talk to anyone after a week or so."

"Sounds good for her!"

"As for you two…"

Yang lifts her robot arm and makes the hand spin around. "I'm not bad at fixing things, plus I work on my bike. Any mechanics around?" She takes another bite of her food. "Or a cook! Always like the look of those old parlor places."

"Honestly, I should stay out of sight," Blake says, wiggling her ears. She'd thrown on a bow the second the doorbell rang, but now was free to remove it. "But I can't code. Weiss can't either."

"She's also never held a job in her life. Yeah, she's changed since we met her, but I don't think she'll take well to working retail."

"I won't take well to working retail. Brothers Grimm, this would be easier if we could teach combat skills."

"Sadly, that's not an option. Your guys' Aura is still shot, plus nobody is going to be able to acquire a gun on a ribbon, let alone learn to use it. I can take you, Yang, to a few of the restaurants here and see if they're hiring."

"That still leaves me and Weiss."

"Leaves you and me for what?" Weiss asks, walking down the stairs. "Oh, you made lunch?" she says, noticing the pot of pasta Yang had prepared.

"Jobs. Mark thinks he can get Ruby a job that lets her stay here, and Yang could probably find a job as a cook somewhere."

"And no, fashion model is out of the question," Yang snarks. "Wouldn't want your face plastered everywhere for people to look into."

Weiss frowns at Yang. Getting a small plate of food for herself, she sits down next to you and begins eating. "Haha, very funny. I'll have you know I hated doing those. I was just a doll for my father to show off."

"The dresses were cute, though."

"They were, but they were NOT meant to be worn. Honestly, fashion is a massive waste of everyone's energy if you can't even run in it."

"Combat skirt," Blake states, looking at Weiss' newly purchased white sundress.

"This is not a combat skirt. My normal outfit works well in the field, as I have proven NUMEROUS time, thank you."

Yang stifles a laugh. "But yeah, not a great idea to plaster your face all over the internet here. Don't want you getting recognized or anything."

Something clicks in your head. You look in front of you and see something you haven't really seen or thought about: (most of) Team RWBY just sitting around being all casual. The last several volumes have been mostly action with little room to breathe, so it was nice to see them so low-key. Something about it being just a regular home they were in was also interesting. It was weird not seeing them in the fantastical locations of Remnant, nor in loud, colorful outfits. They were just in regular clothes, having a regular meal. Like regular people…

"Umm…" you start to say, formulating your thoughts as you go. "Actually, that might not be a bad idea."

"What do you mean?" Weiss asks. "I thought you didn't want us bringing attention to ourselves."

"But what if it wasn't YOU? Or at least, we don't have to tell people it's you."

"Are you gonna explain that or are we gonna have to guess what you mean," Yang asks, clearly not enthusiastic. "Cuz I'm really sick of the double talk and not getting to the point lately."

You shrug. "I don't know if it's a big thing in your world, but here, cosplay is a thing." Seeing that WBY was a little confused, you elaborate. "People dress up as cartoon, game, movie, whatever characters and take pictures. RWBY's huge on it."

"What are you getting at?" Blake asks.

"Usually, people have to build the cosplay, like, work out to put together your outfits and weapons and junk. People pay so that they could make more and take more professional photoshoots.

"Is this a sex thing? Cuz this is starting to sound like a sex thing," Yang asks.

"No–" you start before remembering a certain voice actress for a certain Cinder Fall, who is well known for lewd cosplay, including Cinder. You also remember more than a few cosplayers that make a living dressing up (as well as undressing) RWBY characters. If you regularly followed RWBY-related porn (which you TOTALLY don't), you'd remember videos of each of the girls in front of you in professionally made cosplay sex videos.

"okay for some it might be a sex thing"

"Well, that plan has died the second it was brought up," Weiss frowns.

"It doesn't HAVE to be," you point out. "There are cosplayers that sell in-character nudes and boudoir sets and all that, but some just build props and doing safe for work stuff." You see the three girls consider the option. "You guys ARE the characters, plus have the outfits and weapons. If, say, I take pictures and say you guys are just cosplayers with props, everyone will just think you're good cosplayers."

"That's actually not a terrible idea…" Blake muses.

"I'm down for the hustle!" Yang screams, excitedly. "How much do you think we'd make?"

Weiss raises a hand. "This sounds a bit… Duplicitous. We'd be lying to people."

"The other option is you find a job, Weiss."

"…I'll consider the morality issues."

You start thinking of how to monetize your lie. "Yeah… Yeah! If you each make your own account, people can sub to all of you so we can pool it all together. You can say you live near other and do collab sets." You can picture each member of RWBY having their own flavor of patron page, complete with pledge tiers and goals and all that; you'd need to be creative so people don't catch on to what's really happening, but it'd be easy to do considering. You just need to grab a camera and find some decent locations.

"Man, I actually really like this idea!" Yang says. "It'll be like we're models or something!" She looks at Weiss. "Er… we will be, too."

"I hope you have some level of professionalism in taking pictures, Mark," Weiss states. "I have experience modeling and directing, but someone will need to step up."

"Hey, if this takes off, we can hire a professional to take some pictures. I think we'd be fine with some basic level stuff, at first. Maybe like, 'Domestic RWBY,' where you guys are just chilling in normal clothes around the house?"

"Yeah!" Yang cheers. "And then we can sell sexy pics for tons of cash!"

"You can't be serious, Yang…" Weiss glares disappointedly at the blonde. Yang smirks.

"Heck yeah, I am. If this world is ANYTHING like ours, people will pay big bucks for the good stuff."

"I know you're… you, but would you really be fine with everyone seeing you… undressed?"

Yang shrugs. "I don't HAVE to get naked, do I? I just show some skin and rake in cash? Sounds fine by me."

Blake tilts her head and rolls her eyes. "To be honest, she's not wrong. Sex sells is a universal concept."

"But… it'll be online. For people to see!"

"Yo, Mark, you already said there's tons of porn of us, right?" You nod. "See? Doesn't really matter."

"It'll be online, but nobody you care about will actually see, Weiss." A smile stretches across Blake's face as she eyes Yang up and down. "If you think about it, there's literally zero chance of any lasting consequences. Sure, people would be able to see our theoretical lewds, but once we go back to our world, that'd be it. No one in Remnant would ever know."

"N-no one would know…?" Weiss mumbles, losing track of her sentence. She puts her elbows on the table and begins thinking deeply.

"Actually, yeah. Didn't even think about that. You post something online, it's there forever, but we post here, we'll leave it completely behind in like, what, six months? Nothing we do will come back to us. Blank slate!"

You see the gears in Weiss' head go max overdrive. Her lips move at a mile a minute as she speaks to herself before finally saying, "It hadn't hit me until now. I'm not an heiress here. I don't represent a legacy, I don't have an overbearing father that controls my life, there's no history to tarnish, no image to ruin, no role to fill… I'm free." She starts shaking.

"You uhh… you okay there, Weiss?"

Weiss' head snaps towards Yang. "Okay? I'm liberated! In Remnant, no matter what I do, I'll always be the Schnee Heiress. Everything I do represents that legacy. Here, I'm no one. I can do whatever I want without fear of it ruining decades of my family history. I'm not okay, I'm ECSTATIC!"

You, Blake, and Yang all look at Weiss' beaming face. If you think, the only times you've seen her approach this level of excitement and happiness was when she first saw Zwei, and when she started playing with Adrian, Jaune's sister's baby. It was as if every weight was off her shoulders.

"I don't have to look like a princess at all times! I can go out on dates with whoever I want! I can't go shopping without being bothered by the press!"

"You can stick it to your dad by taking dirty photos and selling them online," Yang interrupts.

"I can do such a thing! …If I so desire," Weiss hastily adds, wanting to be noncommittal.

"Wow, she didn't instantly scream no at you, Yang," Blake laughs. "Freedom is nice."

"If there's no chance of consequence, I MAY, keyword MAY, just consider something tasteful."

"It's settled, then! From today on, you're cosplayers!" 


	10. Chapter 10

RWBY takes their new career paths quite well. While you think they'll still need real jobs (at least the ones that can blend in enough), cosplaying seems like a good option, considering how easy it would be to do. If you set up a for each of them, then hopefully they'll gain a following and then you can pool together their earnings for some extra cash. Yang also suggested that they go a little lewd to pull in bigger numbers, and for the moment, you're the photographer. You enjoy this prospect.

With that settled, you can start working on setting everything up and getting Ruby a job with your company so she can work from home and work on the teleportation machine. Yang would need a little searching, but with her skills and personality, it shouldn't be very hard. Weiss… you'll have to see. Blake's ears complicated things, but you'll see if anything pops up.

That would come later. Today's adventure was a high-stress meeting with terrorists. Yay. You, Blake, and Yang were going to meet with the White Fang members that got sucked over to your world and hope that you could come to an agreement. They had intel on the machine, and hopefully, a Semblance that might assist with the repairs. You had to come along as the liaison between them since you were the only native of this world. Blake was a former White Fang, and Yang had a gun in her arm.

You pull up to the abandoned (well, not anymore) farmhouse where the White Fang was hiding out in, making sure to approach from the opposite direction you normally would, just so they'd have less of an idea where you live. You assume they weren't too interested in their immediate surroundings when they arrived, so you think that they still don't know where you live. You want to keep it that way. You, Blake, and Yang exit your car and walk to the front door. In your hands is a large box.

"Come in," a voice says before you actually knock. The three of you oblige and open the door. Blake removes her bow. Yang casually hides her robotic hand in her pocket in case she needs the surprise factor.

Before you stand three nonhumans. Blake was still normal. Really, you've been trained to recognize catgirls as your basic everyday animal person, so she didn't really stand out. Before you, though, were three Faunus. One was a titan of a man, a foot taller than you at least. He had an aged face, tanned skin, a pure white mane of hair, and horns. Big, massive, pointy horns. From the info they gave you, he was a steer Faunus. Even without his horns, he'd still be was to pick out as someone not from this world. It was beyond rare to see someone so tall and muscly and who struggled to fit into a black tank top with gray sweatpants. He also didn't look very happy, which fills you with fear.

The next Faunus you see was thankfully a lot smaller than the steer-man. She looked to be in her mid-late twenties and had weasel whiskers. She was short and rather mousy, with equally short, mousy deep red hair in a messy bob. Judging from her posture, she was very professional, and she wore what looked like a fashionably altered lab coat. If they didn't tell you none of them worked on the machine directly, you'd assume she was one of the head scientists based on appearance.

The last was harder to tell. However, he looked at you, then Blake, then Yang. Upon seeing Yang, a vibrant blue thin tongue poked out from his lips, confirming him as part skink. He was young, probably somewhere between Ruby and the rest of RWBY in age, and wore punkish clothes, rocking what looked to be a band shirt, a beanie, and ripped jeans. Based on previous info, he was the one with the teleportation Semblance.

"Hello," Blake says, walking forward with a determined expression. "I'm–"

"–You're Blake Belladonna," the steer man interrupts, arms crossed.

"Y-yes. I am." Blake looks confused but quickly reasserts herself.

"*He* told us about you. More than we ever asked."

Nobody in the room asks who, "he," is, since you all know. If the White Fang before you knew Blake, then they knew because Adam told them about her. At least the steer-man said his words with disdain; you get the impression he didn't like Adam.

"That saves me the trouble of telling you who I am," Blake says, trying her best to match the tempo of the conversation. She motions back to you and Yang. "This is my teammate, Yang, and this is the person that found us, Mark. He's from this world."

"Are we really in a different world?" the skink-boy asks.

"Yes," Blake says. "You read the note, but Aura works differently, there's no Grimm, and there are no Faunus here. Only humans."

Skink looks excited at the mention of no Grimm, but immediately gets dejected at the no Faunus thing. Weasel narrows her eyes and bites her finger. Steer snorts angrily.

"We're getting ahead of ourselves," Weasel says. "Before we discuss anything, I suppose we owe you an introduction. She extends a hand and says, "I'm Maron. They brought me in because I studied engineering and robotics, but I only knew a fraction of what they were talking about. I pretty much ended up as IT."

"Colton," the skink-man said. "We mentioned it on the message, but they wanted to study how my teleportation Semblance works. Sounds like they cracked it… sort of."

"Hawthorne," the steer-man said. "I moved things." He made it clear he wasn't going to elaborate any further.

"With introductions out of the way," Blake started. "We can get to business. Yes, this is a different world. Things work differently here."

"You said as much," Maron states. She moves over to a well-worn kitchen table. "This is all of the important information and documents we collected." She motions to a pile of neatly arranged paper and a briefcase. Pointing to a futuristic crate, she adds, "This is the experimental manufactured Dust. I believe it is the main 'battery' if you will, but I don't know specifically how it works, nor are there any meaningful notes on it. Handle it with care, as it can be quite volatile, even in its refined state."

"Are you still going to keep the Dust ammo?" Yang asks. You hear her clench her robotic hand.

"Hands," Hawthorne growls, looking at Yang. "Visible," he commands. With his enhanced senses, it appears he ALSO heard Yang's hand, which could easily be mistaken for a gun. Which it was, but it was also a hand.

"Easy," Yang says, taking her hands out of her sweatshirt pocket. She holds them both up and pulls down her sleeve. The Faunus all inspect her arm. "I got this one after *He* cut the other one off." She meets Hawthorne's eyes with her own angry scowl. "Can't help the noise."

"I'll make this clear," Hawthorne said. "I don't like Adam Taurus. He was a brat obsessed with a girl." He looked at Blake, who faded. Yang's eyes turned red. "But that doesn't mean I like you. Or trust you."

"We noticed," Yang growled. "But you don't need that ammo for anything. Our guns aren't usable here."

"They're heavy recoil and use Dust ammo, which we need if we have any hope of getting out of her," Blake said. "Also, Aura is weakened, and the population here doesn't have it. One of those bullets would eviscerate them, which is attention we don't want."

Hawthorne glared at Blake. Maron put a hand on his arm and stayed him, despite him not having moved a single muscle since he crossed his arms. "She's right. We can barely use our weapons to begin with, and we can't get discovered. If Faunus don't exist here, that makes us targets for experimentation, which is the one thing worse than discrimination."

Hawthorne continued to stare. To break the tension, Colton stepped forward and said, "You said you wanted to see my Semblance, right?"

"Yes," you say, thankful you can contribute. "And to give you these." You place the box you were carrying on the table and open in. Inside were several boxes of macaroni, ramen, and other easily stored things that the Faunus could eat without much in the way of preparation, plus some board games, cards, and an old laptop. They were barely able to leave their hideout, so the less they had to shop (or more than likely, steal), the better. "There's also medical masks and bandanas in there, which you can use if you need to go get supplies."

Colton's blue tongue slipped out of his mouth. Maron's nose wiggled, shaking her whiskers.

"Hawthorne, you can't be seen," Yang says, looking up at the man's giant horns. "It sucks, but you can't be seen."

"I'll live."

"Colton," Blake says softly, trying to ease the tension that rose every time Hawthorne opened his mouth, "Let's see what you can do."

Yang walks up to Blake and says, "Yeah! Come on, impress us!" She pulled out her scroll and set it to record. "We might need to watch it again to get the machine working, so best to record."

Colton looks away from Yang, nervously fidgeting. "Y-yeah. It's not the best, but you can figure out why they brought me on." He walked over to the bag of supplies you placed on the table and brought out a can of soup. Placing it on the edge of the table, he walked over the other side of the room. Focusing his attention on the can, he lifted his hand up and waited.

Everyone looked at the can on the table. As Colton activated his power, it appeared to disassemble, the metal shifting off into individual pieces like little blocky segments. The segments rose into the air before shrinking into nothing, then reappearing and reforming in Colton's hand. He tossed the can in the air and caught it, confirming that it had fully switched locations.

Man, even after all that's happened, watching a Semblance like Colton's was mindbending. People existing from other worlds, catgirls in the living room, and a man with horns down the road… But to see a full display of straight up magic power in front of you was incredible. RWBY hadn't shown you theirs since they had no need, but none of them were quite as spectacular as full-blown teleportation.

"With my Aura messed up, I can't go much bigger than this can," Colton says, bringing you back to your strange reality. "Maybe if I focus really hard or something, but yeah, that's why they brought me on."

"Yo, that was rad," Yang exclaims. "I've seen teleportation Semblances before, but not one that worked like that."

"I theorized that the people who worked on the machine somehow copied how it functions," Maron explains. "They didn't make the major strides until they examined him. Though, considering the end result, I also theorized that his Semblance works not by teleporting things, but by traveling through dimensions." She starts scratching her face rather aggressively. Immediately sounding a bit unhinged, she babbles, "Of course, SAYING that sounds insane and a VIOLATION of the UNIVERSAL laws I studied, but we're TRAPPED in an alternate reality, so I can't exactly TRUST the fundamentals." Her words devolve into nonsense as she pulling at her weasel whiskers.

"If that's the case, Colton, it's probably a good idea to use your Semblance as much as possible," Yang says. "Try and work out exactly how it does what it does. If it is something like dimensional bull crap, then that might be our ticket out of here."

"We'll pretend that that's logical," Maron rationalizes. "Of course, it's all insane to begin with, but–"

"I'll do that," Colton interrupts.

"Good. If that's all, then we can take what we need and start working on the machine."

You all nod at each other. Glad to have had peaceful negotiations, you leave the Faunus to their isolation and head out. They'll have to figure things out for themselves, but you already have plenty to worry about without thinking about animal people. For now, you need to find a camera. 


	11. Chapter 11

"Say cheese," you say, feeling the smarm in the words. You hear a loud click as your camera goes off.

"Cheeeeese," Ruby and only Ruby says, smiling and throwing up a piece sign. The rest of RWBY makes no attempt to move past what they were already doing. "Oh, come on, guys! You got to take this seriously!"

"I dunno, eating rice still doesn't seem like, you know, something people would want to pay for," Blake says, holding up a spoonful of rice. She puts on a very fake face and pretends to pose. "Oh, look at me, I'm so sexy~"

"I mean…" Yang jokes. "Considering we're basically storybooks, we're *kinda* the, 'fairest of them all,' split four ways. Isn't that right, Mark?" She looks at you and flutters her eyes.

"Being real, you four are incredibly attractive by our standards. Whether or not that's because you might(?) have had a character designer is a different story."

"I'd like to think we were all pretty by Remnant standards…" Ruby muses. "Weiss was a model, after all, and Yang always got her share of looks."

"Feels like just about everyone in Remnant is banging…" Yang looks up to the sky and pictures the many characters you've seen continue to get art despite barely appearing.

"We ARE pretty," Blake laughs. "Especially you, Yang. Colton–" she addresses Ruby and Weiss, "–the skink Faunus we're working with, couldn't keep his eyes off of her. He was a younger teenager, and BOY, was he into you."

"That's good!" Yang cheers. "We can use that to our advantage."

"I agree," Blake says. "Communication should be between you and him if at all possible. Not much stronger than a crush. The Brothers know I'M aware of that fact."

"Got it. Any and all meetings should involve low cut tops."

"Yang, please," Ruby whines.

"Come on, Ruby! That's what gets the big bucks, right?" Yang looks up at you and flashes a smile… while also almost flashing her chest as she pulled her collar down.

"I mean, should I snap a picture or are we still not at that point in our relationship?" You hesitate pointing your camera at Yang's cleavage. The four members of RWBY sat before you in their combat outfits, though with most of the extra bits removed to make it fit the more, "casual," feel you were going with on your photo sets. If plans go well, taking pictures like these will kickstart four different sources of income to help pad the cash between them living with you and leaving back to Remnant.

Yang shakes her head. "Nah, if the point is casual, I can't LOOK like I'm trying too hard. If one of the girls pops out, it's got to look accidental." She grabs her chest and pushes it up before letting it drop with a noticeable bounce. A benefit of the girls being trapped here with limited funds meant that Yang didn't have many bras to use, since they were always expensive and *technically* not necessary compared to normal clothes. She didn't seem to care. You don't really, either.

"Yanggg…"

"I'm just kidding, Ruby! You can't start out showing off everything. If I know ANYTHING, it's that you sell the promise. Get the guys hooked and then they'll pay loads to see the goods~"

"Yanggggg…"

"She IS right…" Blake says, surprising everyone. "There's a reason strip *teases* are a thing alongside stripping. It's the same joy as unwrapping a present."

Yang over dramatically gestures to you. "See? Blake knows what I'm talking about."

"Believe me, Ruby, I don't WANT to agree, but yes, that is how you hook people in that… genre." Weiss rolls her eyes. "The modeling agencies took great pleasure in making me position in the most evocative ways even though I never wore anything revealing. But a strapless dress and clever positioning made it look I could *potentially* be topless, and that's what sold the magazines." She rolls her eyes, but somehow even harder. "Of course such sexism exists here just the same."

"That same sexism is gonna make us bank. And need I remind you that there's no lasting consequences?" Yang puts on a wide, self-satisfied grin.

"I told you that I'm well aware of that fact." Weiss looks up at you and says, "But no, we are not at the point in our relationship where I'm comfortable with having you take… such photos."

You shrug. "Understandable, believe me. This is a weird situation to be sure, but I have no plans of overstepping boundaries."

"And so we say, 'cheese,'" Blake says with the lowest amount of enthusiasm you've ever seen in anyone ever. She brushes her hair out of her face and tries to pose while eating her lunch.

"Tryhard," Yang laughs. "All the conversation and you still think the right move is to force it?"

"I'm going to be honest, I am NOT feeling this photoshoot idea." Blake grumpily eats her food.

"You'll come around to it. You're a natural born beauty that knows how to rock it, so it'll come at some point."

"What, and you think brown nosing is going to he–"

Click.

Blake jumps and then freezes in place, a shocked expression painting her face. She slowly turns to facing your camera, then you. She doesn't seem happy.

You look down at your camera's display and see a cute picture of Blake and Yang having a dumb, playful argument. Blake doesn't look like she's trying to force anything, and Yang's big, bright smile manages to catch your poor lighting pretty well. It really nails the vibe you're trying to go for of RWBY in a casual environment. "Uhh… sorry. Felt like a good moment."

"Oh, oh, lemme see!" Yang asks, far more enthusiastic. You pass her the camera and watch as she inspects the picture. She shows it to Blake and says, "See? Look, we look cute! Just a casual something or other about whatever."

"We were arguing. Barely arguing, but arguing."

"But that's the MYSTERY! People can look at this and wonder what we were arguing about. A picture is worth a thousand words!"

"Sounds like a fanfiction title more than a good reasoning."

"Well, it's what we got, Blake. It's a fun opportunity to goof off and make some extra cash."

Blake sighs and eats her food. A small smile spreads across her lips. "Yeah, I know." She addresses you and says, "But I get final say on what gets put in the photo sets. And I guess I can do a bit of editing since I'm stuck in this house."

"Fine by me. From what I gather, some people take a hundred pics but only use like 20 of them."

"That's how it goes," Weiss says, raising a finger. "We don't exactly have a good setup here, but things like professional lighting can vary wildly from shot to shot based on pose."

"But I thought we weren't doing professional?" Ruby says.

"Yeah, kinda against the whole idea."

"I thought we were starting with the unprofessional, at-home setup…" Weiss looks around before settling on a spot in the air. "If and when we get a following, we can afford some equipment or a studio. Though, if we get a little creative…" Visibly straining, Weiss lifts and hand and focuses. A small, bright white glyph appears and begins circling in the air. It manages to provide a clean, consistent light on the kitchen table, mimicking a decent spotlight. "…we can pull off something halfway decent." She lets out a heavy breath. "Though, let's try and get some shots now. I won't be able to keep that up for long with my Aura levels."

"Sounds fine to me!" Yang cheers. "Just try to forget we're being watched."

"Comfortable thought, that is," Blake says, flatly. "But fine."

You take up a position around the kitchen table and watch RWBY enjoy lunch. Combining all of the minutes of time researching on photography websites, you try to capture some good, casual shots of RWBY. With Weiss' makeshift spotlight, the lighting looks pretty good by casual standards, so you manage to snap a number of good shots of the girls eating, followed by them doing the dishes. For as crazy an idea as it is, watching them do something as simple and easy as cleaning was rather pleasant to watch after all the hardships they'd been enduring in the series. It's basic, but it sets up the idea of them living together in a casual scenario. Hopefully, that intrigues people enough to have them sign on.

The real conversation was now what to do about the solo sets. Your plan is to say that RWBY were simply four friends that lived close together and happened to be great matches to cosplay RWBY. That way, they could have four separate pages and "come together," to do group shots. You'll have to be careful about locations so people don't realize that they all live together and operate under a single income; you have to convince people that they're four individuals with four sets of bills to pay. Each girl needed her own flavor for their solo sets to keep them varied and worth purchasing. For as simple as the thought was, this idea was turning out to be surprisingly complicated.

Another thing that you're concerned about is the media aspect. For the sake of the girls' mental health and to keep them from comparing their earnings to each other, you accepted responsibility over everything but being in the photos. That means you'll be handling the pages, the Twitter accounts, the payouts, dealing with people, etc. Considering the bile that comes with online female content creators (especially if they do lewd content), you feel you should save RWBY from the side of the world that would criticize any perceived flaw in their "portrayal", body type, or anything else a douchey troll would get upset over. Something about RWBY really brings out a lot of toxicity in certain squares.

"So, are we famous yet?" Blake asks, looking at you messing with your camera.

"You guys are the stars of a worldwide show, so yes. Right now though, I have to actually put up the pictures."

"Yo, we're worldwide?"

"Yes. You guys are huge in… Well, you don't really know what Japan is, but you get the idea."

"We can fill in a few blanks, at least."

"Blake, I can send the pictures to you if you want to try your hand at editing them."

"Please. I've messed with art apps a few times in my pursuit of drawing the covers to my books."

"She means her fan fictions."

"Yang!"

"Am I wrong?"

Click.

"…"

"Sorry. Seemed like a good moment."

"We need to start setting up boundaries for when you're allowed to take pictures."

"That we do."

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…" Blake glares at Yang, though with a smirk. "Send the pictures my way and I can edit together our grand debut. You said you'll take care of the rest, so I'll trust them to you."

"If that's settled, then I think we can start on solo stuff."

"You can start with someone else," Ruby says. "I wanna take a look at the machine and start working on it."

"Then it's probably best if I do it," Weiss declares. "I can give you some pointers about shot composition, posing, and the like."

"Got it. Grab your coat and we can check on a location."

"I'll be ready in fifteen minutes."


	12. Chapter 12

Fifteen minutes, huh?" Yang says with a smug grin on her face. Weiss takes her last step down the stairs and frowns. "You know time works the same here, right?"

Weiss crosses her arms and frowns. Rather than her blue dress, she was wearing a less fantastical white striped sundress that suited her rather well. "It occurred to me that I was going to a photoshoot. Even if it isn't exactly professional, we should strive to look our best, seeing as that's the whole point." Weiss brushes her immaculately straightened hair back. "I had to work around our limited makeup supplies."

"It's fine, Yang. Not like we're on a schedule," you say. You look up from your phone. About thirty minutes ago, Weiss had said she'd be ready in fifteen. Considering how much you know her personality and prestige in photoshoots, you actually figured she'd take her time getting ready, so you prepared accordingly. "I think I have an idea for a location."

"See? It's fine. Now, let's go."

You rise up from your seat and grab your keys and camera. After waving goodbye, you and Weiss hop in the car and head out towards your planned destination. Considering the entire reason you were trying this whole thing out was to get some money, you thought up a nice (if duplicitous) idea for the initial photo sets for the girls. Drawing in your knowledge of visual novels and certain sims, you express your idea to Weiss.

"You want to *date* me?" Weiss says, a bit incredulous.

"I want the *viewer* to date you. I just have to be the camera."

"Explain before I decide this is a bad idea."

You glance over at Weiss as you drive. "The idea is that the camera is the first-person perspective of someone on a date with you. People would kill to date you in Remnant, and the same goes here, too. Just sell the fact that you're in love with the viewer and people will be interested. That's the thought anyway."

"I… You at least make sense." Weiss glances out the window and watches the foreign world around her go by. "I suppose that would be enticing to the type that wants this sort of content. And I suppose I prefer it to objectifying myself for a magazine…"

"The people here love YOU, Weiss. They don't see you as the Heiress, so we can focus more on you and not your name." You see a smile appear in Weiss' reflection on the window.

"That… sounds nice. I never felt like a person when I did my professional photoshoots. Just a brand." Much happier than when she stepped into the car, Weiss looks forward and loosens her posture. "I'll sell my personality, not my name. Yes. That would be a refreshing change."

"If it works, we can do more dates sets. Build on the theoretical relationship."

"And then maybe…" Weiss trails off. You see her stiffen and look away.

"Maybe what?"

"It occurred to me that that could organically lead to the more… intimate photoset ideas." Weiss covers her mouth to clear her throat. "Ahem… Assuming I decide I would be comfortable with more… revealing shoots." The Weiss that was enjoying the fact that she was free from her family name was currently in conflict with the Weiss who had a proper upbringing where the idea of lewd content was a taboo. "If some miracle happens and I feel I'm comfortable taking cheesecake shots, then it would be as if the viewer earned them. By dating me and winning me over." She clears her throat again. Part of her clearly wanted to explore her life unshackled, but the other part of her was a girl with the normal reaction one has when considering selling NSFW photos of themselves. "Just as a progression of a plot, mind you."

"I totally understand. Never hurts to have a story progress." You add in, "But only if you're comfortable doing that sort of thing."

"I imagine Yang will be interested, knowing her. She'd be right at home playing it up for the camera."

"I'll start slowly I promise. And that's assuming she'd be comfortable with ME taking the photos. I'd still have to be there."

"Yes. That's another hurdle… Right now, we should focus on making you a somewhat professional photography, THEN we can worry about whether or not we're comfortable having you take racier photos."

"Of course. This is a weird situation, and I definitely don't want to overstep." You pull into a parking spot and turn off the car. "With that said, we can start."

Weiss looks in front of her at the location for her photoshoot. "An understandable choice. I've always loved coffee houses."

"Hence why we're here. It's a decent a place as any for a cliche romantic date, and we can sit outside and take pictures." You made a good guess. Weiss always seemed like she'd love cliched romance ideas; her expectations for the Beacon Dance all that time ago was for a cute boy (Neptune) to sweep her off her feet after asking her out. Growing up in a household with unloving parents probably romanticized the idea of… well, actual romance. Anything a lonely girl would see in movies and books as shorthand for love and affection. She also liked coffee!

"So I'm assuming this means you'll be purchasing my drink, then?" Weiss says, smugly. "After all, it's only appropriate for my date to buy me a treat on our little outing."

Ah yes, cliches.

A few minutes later, Weiss was sitting at an outside table enjoying an iced coffee and some coffee cake while enjoy a drink of your own. With the afternoon sun gently pouring down on the umbrella shielding you, it was a pretty lovely scene, especially with a beautiful girl in front of you. You've been trying pretty damn hard to keep it together, but having four gorgeous women live with you was… difficult. You also know all about them, which meant you understood them in a way they didn't with you.

Tying to not get distracted by a pretty girl, you raise your camera. Weiss immediately switches from a happy coffee-drinker to a professionally posed model. Her cheery smile falls away to a far more smoky look with a sultry gaze aimed directly at the camera. It was like her entire face changed in an instant. She was no longer Weiss, but an image for your camera to capture. She held a pose with her coffee hanging lazily in her hand, looking at the viewer with a soft love in her heart. You can already tell this idea was going to work, and you immediately feel like you were on a date with Weiss (or at least, an actually romantic one).

Click.

You look down at your camera. Weiss looks back at you the way you've seen how someone looks at the one they love to spend time with and be around. She had that soft, caring smile to let you know that she was not just happy, but content. Weiss reveled in just being near you, and she wanted nothing more to spend more time with you. You look up to the real Weiss and see that… well, she's enjoying herself, but she's not in love with you.

"Yeah, you're pretty good at this…" you stumble out, flabbergasted at the emotions Weiss tricked you into feeling.

"I would hope after all that practice." Weiss takes a sip of her drink and smiles sweetly. You snap another picture to capture her simple pleasure. "It's much nicer when I can actually share an emotion. Most of the photoshoots I was instructed to just stare blankly. Smiling isn't, 'on-brand,' for a model. Oh, we should do a runway shoot if we're able to purchase enough outfits."

"I'll never understand that… I'm sure everyone will love your smile." You subtly jump as you remember Weiss hasn't done a ton of smiling recently. "I really think this idea will work."

"I must admit, I was skeptical. This is quite fun, actually! A bit liberating now that I can do as I please." Weiss looks down at the camera pointed at her. A sly smirk decorates her face. "In fact, I see nothing wrong with a little tease~" Somehow making the act look natural, Weiss shimmies her shoulder in such a way that her spaghetti strap on her sundress falls over her shoulder. She pretends to not see it, encouraging you to take a picture. Once you snap a few, she glances over, playfully covers her mouth, and makes a show of sliding it back up. She then admonishes the camera for not warning her and instead perving on her bare shoulder.

"Heehee! This is really fun. I'd NEVER be able to do that in Remnant. Even though I tend to wear strapless dresses, the media would have a field day with that stunt." Weiss cheerfully munches on her cake.

"I bet. I've had a…" You hesitate while trying to word this correctly. "I know quite a bit about what you've gone through. Being a celebrity must be pretty taxing."

"It really is. People look at me and see how much money I have… had, I guess, two times over now that I'm here. People would just assume everything was as perfect as the photoshoots made it out to be. Never mind the isolation, control, and literal death games my father had me go through…" Weiss gently runs a hand over her scar. You take a picture, though she understands.

"Yeah, the whole thing with the knight, right?"

"But I made it through. And now I'm… well, I'm caught up in a Millenium-long war against an immortal. That didn't really hit me until just now."

"When you put it like that…"

"But, as you said, if there's one good thing about people prying into my life like a cartoon, it's that you're correct." Weiss smiles brightly at you, an ease on her face that contrasted her statement about being caught in an endless war. "The heroes rarely lose in the end, right? That wouldn't make for a good story conclusion."

"Not in this case. It's called, 'RWBY,' after all." You snap another picture of Weiss' comfort. "People would riot if the headliners lost, especially after everything you've already gone through."

"That's all I can hope for. Until then, we don't really have a choice but to keep moving forward." Weiss blinks, then looks down at her coffee. "Well… I guess our momentum is stopped right now. I guess we don't have a choice but to enjoy this peace as long as we can. Come what may, worrying about our situation won't do me any favors."

"Whatever the state of the world is when you get back, heroes always rise to the occasion. You'll take care of it."

"Cheers!" Weiss raises her coffee cup. You clink your own cup against it. "To victory?"

"To victory. One that lies in a simple soul."

"I did like that song."

"Only right you do. You technically sing it."

Weiss tilts her head. "Do I? I don't really sound like that, do I? I've never touched that genre of music."

You realize that Weiss is voiced by two different people. One handles her usual voice, but she also has a specific one for when she sings. "Thinking about it, I'm not sure how it works for you, but someone swaps out whenever you sing. She's the one that does most of the music in the show."

"Well, my singing voice does sound different to my normal voice… Vocal training and all that. But I wonder if really sound like two completely different people…"

"These are called, 'plot holes,' and I really don't think we need to worry about them."

Weiss holds the bridge of her nose. "Brothers Grimm this is so confusing at times. Nothing makes sense."

Snap.

"I'll give you that one."

You finish up your photoshoot and head home. You really feel like you got some good shots in that ought to make for a good debut.


	13. Chapter 13

"I've done the best I can, given the circumstances," Weiss says as she walks through the door. "He's as professional as he can be for someone with one lesson." She cheerily puts her things down and takes a seat on the couch, and watches Yang pause her video game.

"I'm sure he deserves some credit," Yang says, stifling a laugh.

"Nah, she's a professional," you throw in. "She did most of the work."

"Still, it's good enough for this idea. We'll get there eventually, assuming this is a thing we need to actually keep doing."

Blake looks up from a book. "We don't exactly have an accurate ETA on getting back to Remnant, do we?"

Weiss brushes Yang off. "No, we don't. Ergo, it's best to put effort into this for now."

"That said, are any of you ready to do a shoot?" you ask, handing your camera to Blake. Now that Weiss has the beginnings of a debut, the rest of RWBY needed their sets so you could organize a release. "I got… decent ideas for all of you that won't be too hard."

Blake raises a hand. "I vote Yang. Ruby's working on the machine, and I can start on editing Weiss' photos." She puts her book down and reaches over for the spare computer you let her borrow. "I think I found a decent art program, so can move these photos over and see what I come up with."

"Works for me!" Yang cheers. "So, Snapshot, what's your grand idea for my photoset?"

You look at the TV, where several consoles were set up. Of the four girls, Yang had naturalized the best since you had plenty of video games for her to play, all of which were brand new to her. Blake had your collection of books, but the chance to play an entire library of alternate universe video games appeals to you…

"Honestly, I was considering something to do with video games. That's a side of you people doesn't really see, but clearly is there."

Yang looks over at the game boxes littering the TV cabinet. She shakes her head, "Nah, not yet. If it's not the first association with me, then maybe save it for another set."

"That makes sense."

"Though… sexy gamer girl IS cliche…"

"Yang, you hate that stereotype," Blake says, tapping away on her computer.

Yang shrugs. "Yeah, but it would sell." She looks at you and cocks an eyebrow. "Guys are still morons in this universe, right? Still believe women can't love video games for some unknown reason?"

Your posture drops as you're reminded of incels, gate-keepers, and other anon trash comments you see on anything related to a woman enjoying… anything, really. "Yes. 'Gamer girls' are still a unicorn to some people."

"I'd be angry, but we can make bank on it," Yang says, shrugging again.

You look at Blake on her computer and make a quick connection. "Oh, maybe we can try streaming? Having you guys play video games while people watch."

Yang raises an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah! I watch a bunch of those guys!" She frowns. "Watched…"

"The guys that make your show have like, ten different channels specifically for that. I'm sure it could work."

"That'll be great when we figure it out!" Yang flashes a bright smile. "So, what other ideas you got for right now?"

"You'll be happy to know that #GiveYangAbs is a thing because they don't show up on your model. Some kind of workout set emphasizing the fact that you can bench press a truck."

"Ohh, talk dirty to me~" Yang smirks and flexes her human arm. Her lithe muscles tighten, highlighting her definition and strength. "People want to see me lift?"

"There's a public gym not too far from here, or maybe just some stretches at the park."

Yang thinks for a moment. "I'd say park. People would have less questions about taking pictures." She looks down at her casual outfit consisting of your sweatshirt and pants. "I'll get changed into something hotter, hold up." Yang runs up the stairs and you hear a door slam.

Blake looks up from her work. "I didn't think this would actually work, but it seems like we have something here." She turns her computer to you and shows off a photo you took of Weiss. "I threw on a filter just to see what would happen. You took some decent shots, though, so these probably won't need too much in the way of editing."

You scan Weiss' photo for any issues. Weiss was naturally beautiful, had no blemishes, and knew how to work a camera, so you feel there isn't much to improve. "Maybe you and I should look into what people actually edit in photos like these. I know magazines airbrush women into sticks, but we don't need to be that stupid."

Weiss looks at her photo and says, "Ours do as well, even though I'm not exactly wide… Blake, I'd say look for any with bad shadows or if I'm blinking or blurry and simply remove those. Maybe brighten the colors on me and desaturated the background to make me pop? If I'm the focus…"

Blake nods and withdraws her computer. "I get you. I'll pick and choose the best ones and lookup if I need to edit anything major to look professional."

"Gooooo team!" Yang cries, jumping down the last few stairs. She now wore a hefty sports bra and short shorts, which… okay, yeah, this plan is going to work. You would swear she stepped out of someone's thirsty fanart wth how well her curves were highlighted by her outfit and how her toned body stood out. She looked damn sexy, which would make for an enticing first photo set.

You and Blake ogle Yang's figure as she poses until Weiss snaps you both out of it. "Hello! You have a mission!"

"This is a good plan," Blake says, forcing herself to look down at her computer. "This is a good plan that will work."

"If my photographer can't stop staring, then I think we have a good shot at this~" Yang says, stifling her laughter. "Come on, you can channel that thirst energy into the camera." She waves you to the front door.

You suddenly feel pretty hot under the collar. It's… pretty embarrassing that the girls know you're into them, but in your defense, you aren't the only one. For one, Blake seems to be eating up the eye candy, plus half the point of this whole endeavor is to sucker in people who would pay for sexy pictures of Yang.

Oh, well. Now to take said sexy pictures.

You and Yang load up a few things into the car and head out. Really, you only go about five minutes to a nearby park, which thankfully doesn't have anyone else around. Considering Yang was… Yang, she stood out; she was a hot blonde, was rocking a skimpy workout outfit, AND had a metal arm. Even in normal clothes, her long golden hair made her stand out, so it was lucky that today was quiet. You'll have to think of fitting remote locations once you do shoots in their show-outfits since only Blake's really fit into earth fashion.

"So, where to start?" Yang ponders, looking at the park. It had your usual playground area, a basketball court, picnic tables, grassy fields, the usual suburban tanbark place. "You got like, weights or anything?"

You pop open your trunk and say, "Just a yoga mat and some balls. My plan was for you to do pull-ups on the monkey bars, that sort of thing."

"I'll make it work. How about some yoga? I'm sure THAT would sell." Yang looks over at the grassy area and sighs. "Brothers know I could use some, anyway. KINDA been a lot on my mind lately."

"Yeah, kinda." You see Yang's human arm twitch. She'd been like that since Adam removed her other arm. Even now that he was dead, the scars remained. It wasn't that long ago that Yang actually killed him alongside Blake; he was a magnetic beacon of absolute mental stress, and taking a life couldn't be easy. It was a wonder Yang and Blake could smile at all, to be honest.

You toss Yang the yoga mat. She sets it up in the grassy area and limbers up. "Hold up, you can start taking pics now. Seems like a good time." You ready your camera and snap a picture of Yang stretching her arm across her chest, followed by the other arm. She raises them over her head, stretching out her torso and really emphasizing just how much stomach she was showing off. With every pic, Yang shoots a beautiful face at the camera, eating up the frame with a sunny smile; even after all she'd gone through, she still knew her place in the spotlight. While Weiss was trained in her role as an image, Yang was a natural at being photogenic. Her natural sunny disposition certainly helped, as did her outfit.

With stretching out of the way, Yang slowly altered her stance into the basic Warrior pose, the classic one with the arms stretched to either side with the legs in a lunge. You decide to ignore the questions that arise about Remnant yoga being identical to your yoga and continue taking pictures. At this point, focusing on how a semi-fictional world developed (possibly) based on the perceptions of writers was growing too confusing to keep focusing on.

Moving on, Yang takes several other standing yoga poses before moving to her knees. You kneel down and snap a few of her bridging, lunging, and…

"Come on, man. I know you're trying to be a gentleman about this, but you know what people wanna see~" Yang says, nodding behind her. And speaking of behind, she shifts into the ever-famous Downward Dog pose, aka her ass in the air. "Don't worry, I'll tell Blake it was my idea so she doesn't think you're a perv."

You look away, blushing. Watching Yang in her workout clothes was… enjoyable to watch to say the least, especially whenever she bent over to show off her cleavage. Now, she was inviting you to take pictures of her ass in skin-tight shorts. "Only if you promise…" You circle around Yang and point the camera exactly where people would want the camera pointed in the scenario.

"She'll welcome the opportunity to edit those pictures, I promise." Yang directs her butt even more towards the camera, holding her pose until you stop looking away and take a good quality picture. Continuing with more butt-focused poses, she says, "You saw her… err, wait no, you were staring at me, too. She was staring."

You take a breath and clear your throat. You've managed to dodge around a question you've been dying to know the answer too, and Yang was really swinging both ways on where the answer was. Coincidentally, you were asking about her swinging both ways. "I GOTTA ask, what's… what's going on between you and Blake? Like, I know, but literally fans have been fighting about this for years and I'd love a direct answer." You think of all of the discourse, deserved or otherwise, about RWBY as a series. Top of that list was probably the canon status of Bumbleby; it was the most popular/divisive ship, and considering the last few episodes with Adam, things were… somewhere.

Yang kicks up to standing. "I was wondering when you'd ask, to be honest." She doesn't seem pissed that you asked, which knocks one worry off of your mind. She looks lazily up into the sky and says, "I don't know. Not exactly a satisfying answer, is it?"

"Honestly, I appreciate AN answer."

"And that's the answer." Yang starts walking over to the play structure. Grabbing the monkey bars, she starts doing pulls ups. You take a second before returning to taking pictures. "We kissed."

"You did?" you ask, trying not to sound like you were interested for the wrong reasons.

"Yeah. Emotions were high, tensions were higher, and really, I think we both just wanted to have a single second of peace in between… Adam and that crazy shoe lady AND the Grimm on top of that." Yang hung from the bars for a moment before throwing on a casual smirk for the camera. "We… haven't really talked about it since then. Not that we had a chance to, seeing as… this." Yang does a pull-up and holds a pose for you to snap. "We've both been a little distracted as of late."

You wonder if these pictures are going to be good, considering the topic at hand. Blake will be the one sorting them out, but she won't be able to guess what you're talking about. "Yeah, there's a lot to be distracted about…"

"If I'm being honest, I'm not sure what to do right now. Like, I have feelings for her, of course, but this doesn't feel like the right time. Seeing as she hasn't said anything, I guess she agrees. We're back to the playful flirting phase, but nothing's… moving forward."

"There's a lot between you right now, huh? Putting it lightly…"

"I guess we should probably talk about this sooner rather than later. Talking about it with someone kinda makes it a bit clearer, you know?"

"Glad I could be of some help, at least!"

"Looks like you're more than a money-scheming perv, at least~" Yang says, starting to move along the monkey bars, doing a pull up between each one. "That's something for US to figure out, though, so why don't we take a few more pics and head back?"

You ignore the first comment and snap a picture of Yang triumphantly posing at the other end of the structure, having conquered the monkey bars. You take another as she decides to take a trip down the slide, wearing a comforting smile you're glad to see on her face, especially after all she'd been through. 


	14. Chapter 14

Yang shoulder checks the door open, triumphantly announcing her return. You follow behind her, watching Blake and Weiss hit the couch after jumping from shock.

"Was that really necessary?" Weiss shouts, replacing a pillow she knocked over.

"A little," Yang retorts. "We need SOME excitement in our lives now that we're not in constant danger."

Blake scoffs. "Your excitement just ruined my airbrushing." She giggles and turns her laptop around, showing off a picture of Weiss from her photoshoot, only with a large streak of pale white splashed across the screen. "Thank the Brothers for undo buttons."

"You'll be happy to know that my pics all look great!" Yang cheers. Blake opens her mouth, but Yang interrupts, "No, I didn't look at them. I just know because I made sure he got the money shots~" She looks back at you and slaps her ass. "Now we just need you and Ruby and we'll be good to go."

"After a round of editing, for sure." Blake looks up with a snide grin. "Just to make sure you didn't show too much on the first go."

"You know I'd never."

You watch Yang and Blake flirt, remembering Yang's confession. Somewhere in between the fight with Adam, Cordovin, the Grimm, and everything else, the two had kissed, yet things were still up in the air. Admittedly, the universe almost literally got in the way of a full confession, but the two still needed to really lay out what they meant to each other. That said, they WERE undeniably flirting with each other, but JUST flirting. Whatever. That's something they need to figure out by themselves. Now that things were finally on track, you might push them together to let them figure things out.

"So what's the plan now?" you ask, finding a moment to speak.

Weiss, clearly happy to not have to listen to the meaningless back and forth of Bumbleby, says, "I'd actually recommend you pause for today. I think your work will be better if you don't expend all of your energy in a single day, so we'll save Blake and Ruby for tomorrow."

Yang looks towards your backyard and your garage. "We should probably do the same for Ruby. How long has she been in there working on that machine thingy?"

"Too long, but you know how she gets with her toys," Blake says. "Let's force her to take a break and eat at the very least."

"My plan for her photoshoot was for her to tinker with Crescent Rose, so saving that sounds like a good idea."

"Oh, that is a good idea!" Yang says, grabbing your arm. She starts dragging you to the back door. "Let's tell her the plan and get her inside. Weiss, would you mind turning the oven on to 450 degrees? I can get changed and start on some dinner."

You follow the rock music pouring out from your garage and open it to find Ruby, surrounded by all manner of wrenches, screws, and discarded metal. Thankfully, things were significantly cleaner than last time you stepped in; it appears part of Ruby's attempt at fixing everything involved organizing everything, so all those random pieces were concisely placed. Instead of a… well, the aftermath of telefragging and an explosion, Ruby had created what resembled an auto shop.

Ruby jumps as the door opens, causing her to scramble. She finds her scroll and rapidly flails around to try and shut off her music before silencing it. "Sorry! Sorry! Knock first!" She breathes out and refocuses. "What's up?"

"Yang says it's time for dinner," you explain, stepping inside. "Or at least, time to stop working on this."

"Awwwww, but I was–"

Yang glares and says, "Ruby."

"Fineeeee…" Ruby wipes the sweat off her brow and clambers up. She surveys the work she's done thus far and smiles. "I've just about cataloged everything and organized it, at least as best as I can. After dinner, I can–"

"–You can watch a movie and take it easy," Yang interrupts. "This thing isn't going anywhere and Weiss is sick of me." Ruby tries to argue but earns another glare. "Besides, you can save it for your big photoshoot! Mick had the idea for it to be about fixing up Crescent Rose, so wouldn't want to waste any tinker-energy!"

"Mark," you correct, knowing it's useless.

"Mack!" Yang laughs.

"Yang, I'm like, a bajillion percent tinker-energy!"

"Go take a shower. You smell like garage."

Ruby stomps her foot but relents. "Fine. I've been wanting to look at Crescent Rose since I got here, anyway." She steps outside the garage, into the main house, and up the stairs to clean up. You follow Yang into the kitchen, where she corrects whatever Weiss did for her, and continue into the living room. After changing clothes, Yang gets to work preparing dinner for everyone while you, Blake, and Weiss sift through channels.

A few minutes later, Ruby comes down the stairs to three of you watching whatever happened to be on. She falls down onto the couch before adjusting her pajamas, cheery despite her tinker plans getting canceled. "So, what's on?" she asks, looking at Blake mindlessly flip through channels while Weiss stared at her scroll.

"Let's see," Blake starts, already sounding sarcastic. "We have depressing war movie, trashy rom-com, trashier rom-com, trash rom-com set behind a depressing war movie…" She flicks through a few more channels before landing on one that looked to be a nature flick. "Aaand the history of penguins."

"Oh, cute!" Ruby cheers. Weiss looks up from her scroll, but quickly returns after fawning over a baby penguin.

"You want to toss me the remote?" you say, raising a hand. Blake underarms the remote straight to your hand and you begin flicking through the channels, hoping your knowledge of media would help find a good thing to watch with Team RWBY. As luck would have it, you see a certain movie title pass by that started in a few minutes that might be a good shout. Suddenly considering starting a new subscription to something, you pop over to the new channel and say, "So, on next is an interesting movie for you guys specifically."

"Weird how?" Ruby asks.

You think of how to present this information, considering what it meant in relation to RWBY. "So, bullet points: one, there's this company called Disney; they're famous for making 2D animated films. Two, this is a remake of one of their early ones, since someone decided that everything needed a live-action remake. Three… well, I think you'll find it interesting. I haven't seen this version, but the original is a classic and… yeah, just watch and I'll see how long it takes." You look over at Yang in the kitchen. "You almost done with dinner?"

"Five minutes ought to do!"

"Perfect. It starts in a few."

Blake raises an eyebrow. "So what's the title of this?"

"Uhh… it'll be clear in a sec."

After a few more commercials, Yang brings everyone a plate of lasagna and sits down. The opening credits start on the movie, and the scene shows a young woman in blue as she travels through a bustling medievalish town. Blake sides eyes you when her name is revealed to be Belle, and her main character trait is her love of books.

"Mark, what is this movie called?" Blake asks, narrowing her eyes.

You suddenly feel a little nervous. "So this is Beauty and the Beast…" Blake stares at the screen as everyone sings about how strange Belle is for loving books. "This is… was… Whatever it means now, Blake, this story is sort of your backdrop. It inspired your character. You all have a fairy tale that inspired you, and this is Blake's." You feel four heads turn to you. "It's also a great movie! A least the original was!"

Blake pauses the tv. "I'm… To be honest, this is weird. Super, super weird. But… I won't lie; I'm very interested in what exactly you mean by that."

"So you want to watch?"

Blake pauses. "I do. If we're… based on these characters, my curiosity is already getting the better of me. Getting that context that you have… well, I feel like it might be important to know about. You have so much knowledge of us, and this is where it comes from?"

"Part of it. RWBY follows your stories, but this movie inspired… I guess your design, personality, backstory, even your name. You ARE separate from it, but yeah, influence." You look between Ruby, Weiss, and Yang. "You three have them too. There's Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Goldilocks."

There's a pause. Blake sighs and asks, "And you say it's a good movie?"

"The original–heck all the Disney originals–are classics that every kid has watched. This one is new, but I heard good things aside from it not being as good as the animated version."

"Then I think I want to watch it. Team?"

"You're reasoning is sound, Blake," Weiss says. "I suppose this is a little less intrusive than watching a tv show of our lives."

"I'm in, I guess," Yang says.

"Ok with me!" Ruby cheers.

Blake hits play. The story unfolds, showcasing Blake's origin point as a character. RWBY watches every scene, trying to pick out the bits and pieces that would be relevant to Blake's life. For starters, Belle is a bookworm, influencing Blake's love of stories.

And then he appears.

No one's slick as Gaston, no one's quick as Gaston, no one influenced a person that's sick like Gaston.

Blake pauses the movie again once she gets a hold of who and what exactly Gaston is. She looks at you, caught somewhere in between the campiness of a Disney villain and the horrors he inspired in hers. "That's…"

"Yes," you say, looking at Blake to reassure her that things are okay. "Obsessive, grandstanding, and bullheaded, in love not with the person, but the idea of a trophy."

"Adam…" Blake whispers. Stress starts to make itself apparent on her face as she flashes back to her history with Adam. Suddenly you feel it might not have been the best idea to show this movie to her, especially so soon after she was forced to stab a sword through Adam's chest. Still, her curiosity trumps whatever conflict she has and she continues forward, pressing play.

Eventually, Belle finds herself in the castle of the Beast. After a few rounds of you telling RWBY that all the talking furniture didn't really have a parallel in her life, more actual ones start appearing. For one, Beast himself. Or rather, the things around him.

"Bear with me, because this gets complicated," you preface, trying to remember the various analyses you'd seen over the years. Ticking off boxes in your head, you say, "Blake, you're both Belle and the Beast. Two in one. I remember seeing an explanation that Gambol Shroud reflected that; you have the smaller katana and the heavy cleaver."

"Wait, I'm the Beast?"

"Yes. No. Partially. There's a lot of duality themes going on with you. Black and white, human vs. Faunus, etc." You motion for Blake to pause the screen when the shot focuses on the magic wilting rose that resembles the one on Adam's back. "That's also Adam. Someone said he's the overarching antagonistic force in the movie, not just Gaston; he's Gaston, he's the curse, he's the monster Beast represents. Everything has two meanings."

"And I'm Belle and the Beast?"

"Beauty and the Beast, yeah. Adam was like, the beta name for the Beast in the original that was never actually said. I think he's also the bad, selfish traits of the Beast, but really…" You pause and look at Yang. "Well, we'll get there."

"This is… very interesting," Blake understates. "It's like watching a movie based on a secondhand description of my life in some ways."

"Except with more musical numbers," Yang laughs. "I think Belle's got you beat in singing voice, though."

"Hey!"

"I hear you sing in the shower! We all do!"

"its true we all do" Ruby says, nodding.

Blake crosses her arms and blushes. She looks to Weiss for affirmation but just gets a, "Well…" face.

"Anyway, I'm… well it's going to be interesting talking about the ending and what it means. Until then, hit play I guess."

You glance over at Yang. Yeah, it's going to be interesting, especially considering what you and her talked about earlier today. 


End file.
